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AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

PUBLISHED  BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS.  An  account  of  the  African 
Wanderings  of  an  American  Hunter-Naturalist. 
Illustrated.    Large  8vo §4.00  net 

OUTDOOR  PASTIMES  OF  AN  AMERICAN  HUNTER. 
New  Edition.     Illustrated.    8vo    .    .    .    $3.00  net 

OLIVER  CROMWELL.     Illustrated.    8vo    .    .    $-2.00 

THE  ROUGH  RIDERS.    Illustrated.    Svo  .    .    $1.50 

THE  ROOSEVELT  BOOK.  Selections  from  the  Writ- 
ings of  Theodore  Roosevelt.    l6mo    .    50  cents  7iet 


THE  ELKHORN  EDITION.  Complete  Works  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  25  volumes.  Illustrated. 
Svo.    Sold  by  subscription. 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  one  of  his  big  lions 
From  a  pJwtograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 

AFRICAN  WANDERINGS 

OF  AN 

AMERICAN  HUNTER-NATURALIST 


BY 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


WITH    MORE   THAN   TWO    HUNDRED    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS    BY    KERMIT 

ROOSEVELT    AND    OTHER    MEMBERS    OF   THE    EXPEDITION,  AND    FROM 

DRAWINGS    BY   PHILIP    R.    GOODWIN 


BOSTON    C0LLD3E    LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


NEW    YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

I  9  I  o 


Copyright,  1909,  1910,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNERS'  SONS 


All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of  translation  into 
foreign  languages,  including  the  Scandijiavian. 


.  R7 


l7d8Ue 


^ 


PRINTERS  AND  BINDERS 


TO 
KERMIT   ROOSEVELT 


MY    SIDE-PARTNER 

IN  OUR 

"GREAT   ADVENTURE" 


FOREWORD 

"I  SPEAK  of  Africa  and  golden  joys";  the  joy  of  wan- 
dering through  lonely  lands;  the  joy  of  hunting  the  mighty 
and  terrible  lords  of  the  wilderness,  the  cunning,  the  wary, 
and  the  grim. 

In  these  greatest  of  the  world's  great  hunting-grounds 
there  are  mountain  peaks  whose  snows  are  dazzling  under 
the  equatorial  sun;  swamps  where  the  slime  oozes  and 
bubbles  and  festers  in  the  steaming  heat;  lakes  like  seas; 
skies  that  burn  above  deserts  where  the  iron  desolation  is 
shrouded  from  view  by  the  wavering  mockery  of  the  mirage; 
vast  grassy  plains  where  palms  and  thorn-trees  fringe  the 
dwindling  streams;  mighty  rivers  rushing  out  of  the  heart 
of  the  continent  through  the  sadness  of  endless  marshes; 
forests  of  gorgeous  beauty,  where  death  broods  in  the  dark 
and  silent  depths. 

There  are  regions  as  healthy  as  the  northland;  and  other 
regions,  radiant  with  bright-hued  flowers,  birds  and  butter- 
flies, odorous  with  sweet  and  heavy  scents,  but,  treacherous 
in  their  beauty,  and  sinister  to  human  life.  On  the  land 
and  in  the  water  there  are  dread  brutes  that  feed  on  the 
flesh  of  man;  and  among  the  lower  things,  that  crawl,  and 
fly,  and  sting,  and  bite,  he  finds  swarming  foes  far  more 
evil  and  deadly  than  any  beast  or  reptile;  foes  that  kill 
his  crops  and  his  cattle,  foes  before  which  he  himself  per- 
ishes in  his  hundreds  of  thousands. 


X  FOREWORD 

The  dark-skinned  races  that  Kve  in  the  land  vary  widely. 
Some  are  warHke,  cattle-owning  nomads;  some  till  the  soil 
and  live  in  thatched  huts  shaped  like  beehives;  some  are 
fisherfolk;  some  are  ape-like  naked  savages,  who  dwell  in 
the  woods  and  prey  on  creatures  not  much  wilder  or  lower 
than  themselves. 

The  land  teems  with  beasts  of  the  chase,  infinite  in  num- 
ber and  incredible  in  variety.  It  holds  the  fiercest  beasts 
of  ravin,  and  the  fleetest  and  most  timid  of  those  beings  that 
live  in  undying  fear  of  talon  and  fang.  It  holds  the  largest 
and  the  smallest  of  hoofed  animals.  It  holds  the  mightiest 
creatures  that  tread  the  earth  or  swim  in  its  rivers;  it  also 
holds  distant  kinsfolk  of  these  same  creatures,  no  bigger 
than  woodchucks,  which  dwell  in  crannies  of  the  rocks,  and 
in  the  tree  tops.  There  are  antelope  smaller  than  hares, 
and  antelope  larger  than  oxen.  There  are  creatures  which 
are  the  embodiments  of  grace;  and  others  whose  huge 
ungainliness  is  like  that  of  a  shape  in  a  nightmare.  The 
plains  are  alive  with  droves  of  strange  and  beautiful  ani- 
mals whose  like  is  not  known  elsewhere;  and  with  others 
even  stranger  that  show  both  in  form  and  temper  something 
of  the  fantastic  and  the  grotesque.  It  is  a  never-ending 
pleasure  to  gaze  at  the  great  herds  of  buck  as  they  move  to 
and  fro  in  their  myriads;  as  they  stand  for  their  noontide 
rest  in  the  quivering  heat  haze;  as  the  long  files  come  down 
to  drink  at  the  watering-places;  as  they  feed  and  fight  and 
rest  and  make  love. 

The  hunter  who  wanders  through  these  lands  sees  sights 
which  ever  afterward  remain  fixed  in  his  mind.  He  sees  the 
monstrous  river-horse  snorting  and  plunging  beside  the 
boat;  the  giraffe  looking  over  the  tree  tops  at  the  nearing 
horseman;  the  ostrich  fleeing  at  a  speed  that  none  may 
rival;    the  snarling  leopard  and  coiled  python,  with  their 


FOREWORD  xi 

lethal  beauty;  the  zebras,  barking  in  the  moonlight,  as  the 
laden  caravan  passes  on  its  night  march  through  a  thirsty 
land.  In  after  years  there  shall  come  to  him  memories  of 
the  lion's  charge;  of  the  gray  bulk  of  the  elephant,  close  at 
hand  in  the  sombre  woodland;  of  the  buffalo,  his  sullen  eyes 
lowering  from  under  his  helmet  of  horn;  of  the  rhinoceros, 
truculent  and  stupid,  standing  in  the  bright  sunlight  on  the 
empty  plain. 

These  things  can  be  told.  But  there  are  no  words  that 
can  tell  the  hidden  spirit  of  the  wilderness,  that  can  reveal 
its  mystery,  its  melancholy,  and  its  charm.  There  is  de- 
light in  the  hardy  life  of  the  open,  in  long  rides  rifle  in  hand, 
in  the  thrill  of  the  fight  with  dangerous  game.  Apart  from 
this,  yet  mingled  with  it,  is  the  strong  attraction  of  the  silent 
places,  of  the  large  tropic  moons,  and  the  splendor  of  the 
new  stars;  where  the  wanderer  sees  the  awful  glory  of  sun- 
rise and  sunset  in  the  wide  waste  spaces  of  the  earth,  unworn 
of  man,  and  changed  only  by  the  slow  change  of  the  ages 
through  time  everlasting. 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Khartoum,  March  15,  1910. 


Lniii^itude 


F/.ist 


from 


Greenwich 


Map  showing  Mr.  Roosevelt's  route  and  hunting  trips  in  Africa 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

FACE 

A  Railroad  Through  the  Pleistocene i 

CHAPTER  H 
On  an  East  African  Ranch 38 

CHAPTER  HI 
Lion  Hunting  on  the  Kapiti  Plains 67 

CHAPTER  IV 
On  Safari.     Rhino  and  Giraffe 94 

CHAPTER  V 
Juja  Farm;    Hippo  and  Leopard 123 

CHAPTER  VI 
A  Buffalo  Hunt  by  the  Kamiti 149 

CHAPTER  VII 
Trekking  Through  the  Thirst  to  the  Sotik 174 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Hunting  in  the  Sotik 204 

xili 


PAGE 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX 
To  Lake  Naivasha 237 

CHAPTER  X 
Elephant  Hunting  on  Mount  Kenia 271 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Guaso  Nyero  ;  A  River  of  the  Equatorial  Desert  .     .    323 

CHAPTER  XII 
To  the  Uasin  Gishu 374 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Uganda,  and  the  Great  Nyanza  Lakes 426 

CHAPTER  XIV 
The  Great  Rhinoceros  of  the  Lado 454 

CHAPTER  XV 
Down  the  Nile  ;  The  Giant  Eland 504 

Appendix  A    [Personal  Acknowledgments] 535 

Appendix  B  [Lists  of  Mammals  ;  Heller's  Notes]     ....  536 

Appendix  C    [Loring's  Notes] 545 

Appendix  D  [Biological  Survey  of  Mount  Kenia]     ....  550 

Appendix   E    [Protective  Coloration  in  Animals] 552 

Appendix  F    [The  Pigskin  Library] 569 

Index     ...         577 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  one  of  his  big  lions Frontispiece 

PACE 

Map  showing  Mr.  Roosevelt's  route  and  hunting  trips  in  Africa    .     .         .     .  xii 

Map  of  the  Uganda  Railway,  British  East  Africa.     Total  length  from  Mom- 
basa on  the  Indian  Ocean  to  Port  Florence  on  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  581 

miles       3 

We  would  gather  on  deck  around  Selous  to  listen  to  tales  of  strange  adventures  5 

A  baobab-tree,  Mombasa 6 

Kermit  Roosevelt  and  R.  J.  Cuninghame  preparing  to  take  pictures     ....  7 

F.  C.  Selous 8 

R.  J.  Cuninghame,  known  to  the  Swahilis  as  "Bwana  Medivu,"  the  master 

with  the  beard 9 

Mr.  Roosevelt  saying  good-by  in  the  Mombasa  station 11 

Train  on  the  Uganda  Railway 13 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  Governor  Jackson,  Mr.  Selous,  and  Dr.  Mearns,  riding  in  front 

of  the  engine  on  the  way  to  Kapiti 15 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  some  members  of  his  caravan 17 

A  large  American  flag  was  floating  over  my  own  tent 21 

The  askaris  and  porters  drawn  up  in  line  to  greet  us 22 

Our  first  camp,  Kapiti  Plains  station,  on  a  bare,  dry  plain  covered  with  brown 

and  withered  grass 24 

Porters  and  their  tents 27 

My  first  "tommy"  (Thomson's  gazelle) .  31 

A  herd  of  zebra  and  hartebeest     .          .     .          •     •  33 

Head  of  the  wildebeest  bull  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt      ........  34 

Mr.  Roosevelt  in  Africa  in  his  hunting  costume 35 

XV 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Sir  Alfred,  Lady,  and  Miss  Pease,  on  ranch  steps  with  rhino  and  lion  skulls  and 

lion  skins 39 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Medlicott  at  the  spot  where  we  nooned  on  the  first  (unsuc- 
cessful) day  of  lion  hunting  in  the  Lucania  Donga '43 

Tree  with  Wakamba  beenives,  Kitanga 45 

Percival  and  his  oxen  starting  ofif  for  the  giraffes 46 

Sir  Alfred  with  cheetah  cub,  Botha 47 

Klopper  and  Prinsloo,  the  two  Boers  working  on  Sir  Alfred's  ranch     ...  49 

Heads  of  first  two  big  lions  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt       51 

Some  of  the  naturalists'  porters  and  skinners 53 

Vulture  raven  or  white-necked  raven 61 

Kermit  Roosevelt,  Sir  Alfred  Pease,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  the  carcass  of  first 

big  lion 69 

Clifford  Hill's  Kikuyu  ostrich  boys  as  they  beat  the  tall  grass  for  lion  on  the 
third  day  of  lion  hunting  at  Killima  (Hill)  Ugami,  when  we  got  two  large 

and  one  small  one. ,  The  boys  had  their  bows  and  arrows  for  protection  .  73 

Mr.  Roosevelt  weighing  a  lioness  (shot  by  him)  which  the  porters  brought  in 

entire  amid  great  rejoicings  and  chantings 75 

One  of  the  native  beaters  and  gun-bearers 79 

The  start  for  the  first  day's  lion  hunting 81 

View  of  rock  where  we  lunched  on  the  day  we  got  the  first  four  lions   ...  82 

Noon  at  Ugami.     Sir  Alfred  Pease  bending  over  behind  jNIr.  Roosevelt ...  83 

"Ben"  worrying  the  second  big  lion  before  it  died,  and  when  we  were  afraid 

it  could  yet  charge 87 

Kermit  Roosevelt  and  cheetah  shot  by  him 89 

The  third  male  lion  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 91 

The  caravan  on  safari  at  Potha 95 

The  American  flag  was  always  at  the  head  or  near  the  head  of  the  line  of 

march 96 

Stopping  for  luncheon  at  Bondoni  rocks 97 

Making  camp  at  Bondoni 100 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

FACE 

A  tribe  of  the  Wakamba  with  their  chief  (in  khaki  with  a  golf  cap)  that  came 

to  present  Mr.  Roosevelt  with  a  sheep  near  Kilimakiu 102 

Skinning  the  eland 105 

Before  he  could  get  quite  all  the  way  round  in  his  headlong  rush  to  reach  us, 

I  struck  him  with  my  left-hand  barrel 107 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Percival  on  his  way  to  Kapiti  station  with  trophies iii 

Masai  Elmoran,  Machakos  road  station 113 

A  young  bull  giraffe,  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  Kilimakiu 115 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  Captain  Slatter,  and  rhino  shot  by  Mr.  Roosc.elt  at  Kilimakiu  117 

The  Percival  family 119 

Group  of  skin-laden  mules  passing  by  the  Bondoni  waterhole  on  their  way  to 

the  railroad 121 

The  house  at  Juja  Farm 125 

Masai  warriors  near  McMillan's  ranch  on  the  Mua  hills 127 

Head  of  a  waterbuck  bull  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 129 

The  python 131 

Kermit  Roosevelt  and  the  leopard 133 

Native  boy  carrying  in  a  leopard  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  near  Juja  Ranch     .  134 

Without  any  warning,  out  he  came  and  charged  straight  at  Kermit,   who 

stopped  him  when  he  was  but  six  yards  off 135 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Judd  permanganating  the  beater  who  was  mauled  by  the  leopard     ....  137 

The  second  rhino 139 

Group— Towing  the  hippo  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.     Landing  the  hippo.     .     .  143 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Bwana  Engozi  (Judd) 145 

Mrs.  McMillan  and  cheetah 147 

Heatley  with  two  leopard  cubs  he  caught 149 

Falls  on  the  Rewero  River       ...          151 

Wildebeest  bull  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kamiti 153 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Whydah  birds'  dancing-ring 155 

Heatley  and  a  buffalo  path 157 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  with  the  first  buffalo 161 

Cuninghame,  Kermit,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  Heller,  and  Heatley  at  buffalo  camp     .  163 

It  was  not  a  nice  country   in  which  to  be  charged  by  the  herd,  and  for  a 

moment  things  trembled  in  the  balance 165 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Third  buffalo  bull  shot  in  the  swamp 168 

Porters  dancing  when  breaking  camp  at  Kamiti 171 

Heller  preparing  to  send  off  game  heads  of  the  first  five  weeks'  shooting       .     .  172 

Mr.  Roosevelt  after  luncheon  with  the  head  missionary 175 

Group — The  safari  on  the  march.     Ulyate  and  eland  calf  brought  in  by  Masai  176 

An  askari  on  duty       177 

Group — The  ox  wagons  trekking  through  the  scrub.     The  porter-harper  and 

his  native  harp iSo 

A  halt 183 

Every  one  rested  under  the  fly-tent  at  noon  in  the  trek  through  the  thirst     .     .  184 

Watering  the  oxen.     Taking  their  last  drink  for  three  days       .  185 

Group — Waxbills.     Courser.     Elephant  shrev/.     Springhaas.    Dikdik     Serval 

kitten.     Banded  mongoose.     Colobus  monkey 187 

A  wounded  wildebeest 188 

A  Colobus  monkey 189 

Group — A  wounded  tommy.     Head  of  the  old  bull  eland          191 

Giant  Masai  warriors  and  an  average-sized  porter  .          .......  193 

Topi  (shot  by  Kermit)     .          .     .          194 

The  big  lion  shot  by  Kermit 195 

Tarlton,  and  cheetah  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt       .     .          196 

A  wart-hog  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt         .     .          198 

Extreme  form  of  Roberts'  gazelle ■ .  aoo 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xix 

PACE 

Group — Masai  with  stretching-stone  in  ear.     A  Masai  woman  and  toto      .     .  201 

The  safari  fording  a  stream 207 

Group — A  rhino  family.     Rhino  surveying  the  safari.     "In  the  middle  of  the 

African  plain,  deep  in  prehistoric  thought" 209 

Giraffe  at  home 211 

Bluffs  near  one  of  our  camping-places 212 

Striped  hyena  trapped  by  Heller 213 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  rhino,  and  bustard  shot  from  rhino 216 

Wildebeest  at  home .     .  219 

Rhino  and  young 221 

A  giant  candelabra  euphorbia  by  our  camp 225 

Group — The  wounded  lioness  ready  to  charge.     The  wounded  lioness        .     .  227 

He  came  on  steadily — ears  laid  back  and  uttering  terrific  coughing  grunts        .  229 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  Tarlton,  and  the  big  lion  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 233 

A  rhino  "coming  on"      .     .     .  ' 235 

Masai  guides  on  Sotik  trip       237 

The  rhino  stood  looking  at  us  with  his  big  ears  cocked  forward 240 

Rhino  shot  from  Salt-marsh  camp,  of  the  Keitloa  type,  with  rear  horn  longer 

than  front  horn 241 

A  sick  Masai  boy  and  his  father 247 

The  waterhole  we  struck  after  having  made  a  dry  camp  on  our  trek  to  Nai- 

vasha 249 

Camp  at  Lake  Naivasha 250 

Water-lilies,  Lake  Naivasha 251 

Group — What  one  has  to  shoot  at  when  after  hippo  on  water.    Mr.  Roosevelt's 

hippo  charging  open-mouthed 253 

Charged  straight  for  the  boat,  with  open  jaws,  bent  on  mischief 255 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Group — Black-backed   jackal.      Tree   hyrax.      Big   gazelle   buck.     Pelican. 

Spotted  genet.     White-tailed  mongoose.     Porcupine.     Baboon  ....  259 


XX  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Cuninghame  discussing  the  next  few  days'  march  over  a 

wildebeest  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 263 

Bringing  the  big  bull  hippo  tc  shore 265 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  big  bull  hippo 268 

Meru  porters  carrying  trophy  ivory 271 

A  waterbuck 275 

Creek  on  slopes  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 276 

Kikuyu  Ngama,  Neri 279 

Kikuyu  village  near  first  elephant  camp 282 

West  side  of  Kenia's  peak,  taken  at  an  altitude  of  15,000  feet 285 

Falls  on  slope  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 288 

Elephant  trail  in  bamboo 289 

Group — Camping  after  death  of  the  first  bull.     The  porters  exult  over  the 

death  of  the  bull 291 

The  'Ndorobo  who  had  hysterics  on  the  elephant 293 

The  chief  who  acted  as  guide  through  shambas  country  near  first  elephant  camp  296 

Tree-ferns  on  slopes  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 299 

Suliman  Na  Meru,  one  of  the  elephant  guides ^     .  300 

Trunk  of  giant  fig-tree  in  Kenia  forest 303 

The  charging  bull  elephant 305 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

The  first  bull  elephant 309 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  description  of  one  of  the  elephant  pictures — written  on  the 

back  of  it 312 

A  herd  of  elephant  in  an  open  forest  of  high  timber 313 

Group — The  herd  getting  uneasy.     The  saine  herd  on  the  eve  of  charging     .  315 

A  watch-tower  in  Meru  shambas 319 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  and  Kermit's  camp  near  which  they  got  the  rhino  and  elohant  320 

A  cow  elephant 321 

Kikuyu  warrior '........  324 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xxi 

PAGE 

Two  Kikuyu  boys 327 

My  boma  where  I  was  camped  alone 328 

An  oryx  bull 330 

Ivory-nut  palms  on  the  Guaso  Nycro 334 

The  Guaso  Nyero       337 

A  Boran  camp 339 

A  domesticated  young  male  eland  at  Meru 343 

Helping  a  donkey  across  the  stream 347 

A  mixed  herd  of  Grevy's  and  Burchell's  zebras 352 

Group — The  old  bull  Athi  giraffe.     The  reticulated  giraffe       355 

Dressing  the  porter  who  was  tossed  by  the  rhino 363 

Group — Black-and-white  crow.     Sparrow-lark.     Ant  wheatear.     Ostrich  nest. 

Rusty  rock-rat.     Sand-rat.     African  hedgehog.     "Mole-rat."     ....  371 

Juma  Yohari  with  the  impalla  killed  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Lake  Hannington  377 

Mr.  Roosevelt  in  a  bamboo  forest     ... 381 

Kassitura  with  the  roan  antelope       .     .          384 

A  hyena  by  flashlight .     .  387 

Yohari  with  the  waterbuck  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 391 

Tarlton  and  singsing  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 394 

Juma  Yohari  with  Nilotic  bushbuck 397 

Round  the  elephant 402 

The  hyena,  which  was  swollen  with  elephant  meat,  had  gotten  inside  the  huge 

body 403 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  some  of  the  Nandi  warriors 406 

Rearing,  the  lion  struck  the  man,  bearing  down  the  shield                 .     /     .  411 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

The  Nandi  dance  around  the  speared  lion 413 

Mr.  Roosevelt  photographing  the  speared  lion 415 

As  he  fell  he  gripped  a  spear-head  in  his  jaws  with  such  tremendous  force  that 

c-    he  bent  it  double      .     .     .     .- .     .    .  416 


xxii  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


The  spears  that  did  the  trick 417 

Sailinye,  the  Dorobo,  who  was  with  Kermit  Roosevelt  when  he  shot  the  bongo, 

holding  up  the  bongo  head 421 

Dance  of  boys  of  the  Nyika  tribe  in  honor  of  the  chief's  son  who  had  just  died  424 

Kavirondos  returning  from  market 426 

Group — Kavirondos  going  down  to  fill  their  water-jars.     Kavirondo  bullock 

wagons 427 

Entebbe,  looking  over  lake 429 

The  Indian  elephant  at  Entebbe 430 

Colonel  Roosevelt  at  Mother  Paul's  Mission       422 

Mother  Paul's  band  composed  of  mission  bo3'S 4^6 

Colonel  Roosevelt  at  the  Mission  of  the  White  Fathers 437 

The  situtunga  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kampalla 439 

Road  through  banana  shambas,  Uganda 441 

The  dead  tusker 446 

Porters  entering  camp  at  Hoima 449 

Cow-herons  and  Angola  ox  on  the  bank  of  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza     ....  450 

Fac-simile  of  half  of  the  last  page  of  Chapter  XIII  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  manuscript  452 

The  "white"  rhino '.     .     .     .  455 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin 

Sail-boat  at  Wadelai  Landing 4^8 

Rhino  camp,  Lado  Enclave 459 

Group — Crocodile.     Nile  bushbuck.     Cobus  maria.     Baker's  roan.     Ground 

hornbill.     Wagtail.     Nightjar.     Fish  eagle 461 

Camp  in  the  Lado 463 

Veldt  pool,  rhino  camp 465 

The  papyrus  afire 469 

Group— Cow  square-nosed  rhino  of  the  Lado,  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.     Rhino 

of  the  usual  t>'pe,  with  prehensile  lip,  shot  on  the  Sotik  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  .  472 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xxiii 

PAGE 

We  walked  up  to  within  about  twenty  yards 477 

Marabous  and  vultures.     The  undertakers 479 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Quentin  Grogan 481 

Mr.  Roosevelt  with  kob,  shot  at  rhino  camp       484 

The  cow  and  calf  square-nosed  rhino  under  the  tree  after  being  disturbed  by 

the  click  of  the  camera 487 

The  calf,  which  was  old  enough  to  shift  for  itself,  refused  to  leave  the  body  .     .  488 

When  alarmed  they  failed  to  make  out  where  the  danger  lay 494 

One  remained  standing,  but  the  other  deliberately  sat  down  upon  its  haunches 

like  a  dog 495 

The  monitor  lizard  robbing  a  crocodile's  nest 499 

Arrival  at  Gondokoro 509 

The  return  to  Redjaf,  Belgian  askari  in  the  rear 511 

Giant  bull  eland 516 

Bari  at  Mongalla 518 

Troops  at  Mongalla 519 

Mr.  Roosevelt  with  the  Belaeniceps  rex,  or  whale-billed  stork,  at  Lake  No  .     .  526 

American  Mission,  Sobat  River 528 

Slatin  Pasha,  from  the  roof  of  the  Khalifa's  palace,  shows  how  he  made  his 

escape  from  Omdurman 529 

Mr.  Roosevelt  on  his  camel 531 


He  loved  the  great  game  as  if  he  were  their  father. 

— Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle. 

Tell  me  the  course,  the  voyage,  the  ports  and  the  new  stars. 

— Bliss  Carman. 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

CHAPTER   I 
A  RAILROAD  THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 

The  great  world  movement  which  began  with  the  voy- 
ages of  Columbus  and  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  which  has  gone 
on  with  ever-increasing  rapidity  and  complexity  until  our 
own  time,  has  developed  along  a  myriad  lines  of  interest.  In 
no  way  has  it  been  more  interesting  than  in  the  way  in  which 
it  has  brought  into  sudden,  violent,  and  intimate  contact 
phases  of  the  world's  life  history  which  would  normally  be 
separated  by  untold  centuries  of  slow  development.  Again 
and  again,  in  the  continents  new  to  peoples  of  European 
stock,  we  have  seen  the  spectacle  of  a  high  civilization  all 
at  once  thrust  into  and  superimposed  upon  a  wilderness  of 
savage  men  and  savage  beasts.  Nowhere,  and  at  no  time, 
has  the  contrast  been  more  strange  and  more  striking  than 
in  British  East  Africa  during  the  last  dozen  years. 

The  country  lies  directly  under  the  equator;  and  the 
hinterland,  due  west,  contains  the  huge  Nyanza  lakes,  vast 
inland  seas  which  gather  the  head-waters  of  the  White  Nile. 
This  hinterland,  with  its  lakes  and  its  marshes,  its  snow- 
capped mountains,  its  high,  dry  plateaus,  and  its  forests 
of  deadly  luxuriance,  was  utterly  unknown  to  white  men 
half  a  century  ago.  The  map  of  Ptolemy  in  the  second  cen- 
tury of  our  era  gave  a  more  accurate  view  of  the  lakes, 
mountains,  and  head-waters  of  the  Nile  than  the  maps  pub- 
lished at  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  just  before  Speke,  Grant,  and  Baker  made  their 
great  trips  of  exploration  and  adventure.  Behind  these 
explorers  came  others;  and  then  adventurous  missionaries, 
traders,  and  elephant  hunters;    and  many  men,  whom  risk 

1 


2  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

did  not  daunt,  who  feared  neither  danger  nor  hardship, 
traversed  the  country  hither  and  thither,  now  for  one  rea- 
son, now  for  another,  now  as  naturahsts,  now  as  geog- 
raphers, and  again  as  government  officials  or  as  mere 
wanderers  who  loved  the  wild  and  strange  life  which  had 
survived  over  from  an  elder  age. 

Most  of  the  tribes  were  of  pure  savages;  but  here  and 
there  were  intrusive  races  of  higher  type;  and  in  Uganda, 
beyond  the  Victoria  Nyanza,  and  on  the  head-waters  of 
the  Nile  proper,  lived  a  people  which  had  advanced  to  the 
upper  stages  of  barbarism,  which  might  almost  be  said  to 
have  developed  a  very  primitive  kind  of  semi-civilization. 
Over  this  people — for  its  good  fortune — Great  Britain  estab- 
lished a  protectorate;  and  ultimately,  in  order  to  get  easy 
access  to  this  new  outpost  of  civilization  in  the  heart  of  the 
Dark  Continent,  the  British  Government  built  a  railroad 
from  the  old  Arab  coast  town  of  Mombasa  westward  to 
Victoria  Nyanza. 

This  railroad,  the  embodiment  of  the  eager,  masterful, 
materialistic  civilization  of  to-day,  was  pushed  through  a 
region  in  which  nature,  both  as  regards  wild  man  and  wild 
beast,  did  not  and  does  not  differ  materially  from  what  it  was 
in  Europe  in  the  late  Pleistocene.  The  comparison  is  not 
fanciful.  The  teeming  multitudes  of  wild  creatures,  the  stu- 
pendous size  of  some  of  them,  the  terrible  nature  of  others, 
and  the  low  culture  of  many  of  the  savage  tribes^  especially 
of  the  hunting  tribes,  substantially  reproduces  the  conditions 
of  life  in  Europe  as  it  was  led  by  our  ancestors  ages  before 
the  dawn  of  anything  that  could  be  called  civilization.  The 
great  beasts  that  now  live  in  East  Africa  were  in  that  by-gone 
age  represented  by  close  kinsfolk  in  Europe;  and  in  many 
places,  up  to  the  present  moment,  African  man,  absolutely 
naked,  and  armed  as  our  early  paleolithic  ancestors  were 
armed,  lives  among,  and  on,  and  in  constant  dread  of,  these 
beasts,  just  as  was  true  of  the  men  to  whom  the  cave  lion 
was  a  nightmare  of  terror,  and  the  mammoth  and  the 
woolly  rhinoceros  possible  but  most  formidable  prey. 


THROUGH   THE   PLEISTOCENE 


Map  of  the   Un;anda  Railway,  British  East  Africa.     Total  length  from  Mombasa  on 
the    Indian  Ocean  to  Port  Florence  on   Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  581  miles 

This  region,  this  great  fragment  out  of  the  long-buried 
past  of  our  race,  is  now  accessible  by  railroad  to  all  who 
care  to  go  thither;  and  no  field  more  inviting  offers  itself 
to  hunter  or  naturalist,  while  even  to  the  ordinary  traveller 
it  teems  with  interest.  On  March  23,  1909,  I  sailed  thither 
from  New  York,  in  charge  of  a  scientific  expedition  sent 
out  by  the  Smithsonian,  to  collect  birds,  mammals,  reptiles, 
and  plants,  but  especially  specimens  of  big  game,  for  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington.  In  addition  to  myself 
and  my  son  Kermit  (who  had  entered  Harvard  a  few 
months  previously),  the  party  consisted  of  three  naturalists: 
Surgeon-Lieut.  Col.  Edgar  A.  Mearns,  U.S.A.,  retired;  Mr. 
Edmund  Heller,  of  California,  and  Mr.  J.  Alden  Loring, 
of  Owego,  N.  Y.  My  arrangements  for  the  trip  had  been 
chiefly  made  through  two  valued  English  friends,  Mr. 
Frederick  Courteney  Selous,  the  greatest  of  the  world's 
big-game  hunters,  and  Mr.  Edward  North  Buxton,  also  a 
mighty  hunter.  On  landing  we  were  to  be  met  by  Messrs. 
R.  J.  Cuninghame  and  Leslie  Tarlton,  both  famous  hunt- 


4  AFRICAN   gamp:  TRAILS 

ers;  the  latter  an  Australian,  who  served  through  the  South 
African  war;  the  former  by  birth  a  Scotchman,  and  a  Cam- 
bridge man,  but  long  a  resident  of  Africa,  and  at  one  time 
a  professional  elephant  hunter — in  addition  to  having  been 
a  whaler  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  a  hunter-naturalist  in  Lap- 
land, a  transport  rider  in  South  Africa,  and  a  collector  for 
the  British  Museum  in  various  odd  corners  of  the  earth. 

We  sailed  on  the  Hamburg  from  New  York — what  head- 
way the  Germans  have  made  among  those  who  go  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships! — and  at  Naples  trans-shipped  to  the 
Admiral,  of  another  German  line,  the  East  African.  On 
both  ships  we  were  as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  the  voyage 
was  wholly  devoid  of  incidents.  Now  and  then,  as  at  the 
Azores,  at  Suez,  and  at  Aden,  the  three  naturalists  landed, 
and  collected  some  dozens  or  scores  of  birds — which  next 
day  were  skinned  and  prepared  in  my  room,  as  the  largest 
and  best  fitted  for  the  purpose.  After  reaching  Suez  the 
ordinary  tourist  type  of  passenger  ceased  to  be  predomi- 
nant; in  his  place  there  were  Italian  officers  going  out  to  a 
desolate  coast  town  on  the  edge  of  Somaliland;  mission- 
aries, German,  English,  and  American;  Portuguese  civil 
officials;  traders  of  different  nationalities;  and  planters 
and  military  and  civil  officers  bound  to  German  and  British 
East  Africa.  The  Englishmen  included  planters,  magis- 
trates, forest  officials,  army  officers  on  leave  from  India, 
and  other  army  officers  going  out  to  take  command  of  black 
native  levies  in  out-of-the-way  regions  where  the  English 
flag  stands  for  all  that  makes  life  worth  living.  They  were 
a  fine  set,  these  young  Englishmen,  whether  dashing  army 
officers  or  capable  civilians;  they  reminded  me  of  our  own 
men  who  have  reflected  such  honor  on  the  American  name, 
whether  in  civil  and  military  positions  in  the  Philippines  and 
Porto  Rico,  working  on  the  Canal  Zone  in  Panama,  taking 
care  of  the  custom-houses  in  San  Domingo,  or  serving  in 
the  army  of  occupation  in  Cuba.  Moreover,  I  felt  as  if  I 
knew  most  of  them  already,  for  they  might  have  walked  out 
of  the  pages  of  Kipling.    But  I  was  not  as  well  prepared  for 


THROUGH  THE   PLEISTOCENE  5 

the  corresponding  and  equally  interesting  types  among  the 
Germans,  the  planters,  the  civil  officials,  the  officers  who 
had  commanded,  or  were  about  to  command,  white  or  na- 
tive troops;  men  of  evident  power  and  energy,  seeing  whom 
made  it  easy  to  understand  why  German  East  Africa  has 


We  would  gather  on  deck  around  Selous  to  listen  to  tales 

of  strange  adventures 

From  a  photcgraph  by  Kcrjnit  Roosevelt 

thriven  apace.  They  are  first-class  men,  these  English  and 
Germans;  both  are  doing  in  East  Africa  a  work  of  worth 
to  the  whole  world;  there  is  ample  room  for  both,  and  no 
possible  cause  for  any  but  a  thoroughly  friendly  rivalry;  and 
it  is  earnestly  to  be  wished,  in  the  interest  both  of  them  and 
of  outsiders,  too,  that  their  relations  will  grow,  as  they  ought 
to  grow,  steadily  better — and  not  only  in  East  Africa  but 
everywhere  else. 

On  the  ship,  at  Naples,  we  found  Selous,  also  bound 
for  East  Africa  on  a  hunting  trip;  but  he,  a  veteran  whose 
first  hunting  in  Africa  was  nearly  forty  years  ago,  cared  only 
for  exceptional  trophies  of  a  very  few  animals,  while  we,  on 
the  other  hand,  desired  specimens  of  both  sexes  of  all  the 
species  of  big  game  that  Kermit  and  I  could  shoot,  as  well 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


as  complete  series  of  all  the  smaller  mammals.  We  be- 
lieved that  our  best  work  of  a  purely  scientific  character 
would  be  done  with  the  mammals,  both  large  and  small. 

No  other  hunter  alive  has  had  the  experience  of  Selous; 
and,  so  far  as  I  now  recall,  no  hunter  of  anything  like  his 


A  baobab-tree,   Mombasa 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerjiiit  Roosevelt 

experience  has  ever  also  possessed  his  gift  of  penetrating 
observation  joined  to  his  power  of  vivid  and  accurate  nar- 
ration. He  has  killed  scores  of  lion  and  rhinoceros  and 
hundreds  of  elephant  and  buffalo;  and  these  four  animals 
are  the  most  dangerous  of  the  world's  big  game,  when 
hunted  as  they  are  hunted  in  Africa.  To  hear  him  tell  of 
what  he  has  seen  and  done  is  no  less  interesting  to  a  nat- 
uralist than  to  a  hunter.     There  were  on  the  ship  many 


THROUGH  THE   PLEISTOCENE  7 

men  who  loved  wild  nature,  and  who  were  keen  hunters 
of  big  game;  and  almost  every  day,  as  we  steamed  over 
the  hot,  smooth  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Indian 
Ocean,  we  would  gather  on  deck  around  Selous  to  listen 
to  tales  of  those  strange  adventures  that  only  come  to  the 
man  who  has  lived  long  the  lonely  life  of  the  wilderness. 


Kermit  Roosevelt  and  R.  J.  Cuninghame  preparing  to 
take  pictures 

On  April  21  we  steamed  into  the  beautiful  and  pictu- 
resque harbor  of  Mombasa.  Many  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era,  dhows  from  Arabia,  carrying  seafarers  of 
Semitic  races  whose  very  names  have  perished,  rounded  the 
Lion's  Head  at  Guardafui  and  crept  slowly  southward 
along  the  barren  African  coast.  Such  dhows  exist  to-day 
almost  unchanged,  and  bold  indeed  were  the  men  who  first 
steered  them  across  the  unknown  oceans.  They  were  men 
of  iron  heart  and  supple  conscience,  who  fronted  inconceiv- 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


able  danger  and  hardship;  they  estabhshed  trading  stations 
for  gold  and  ivory  and  slaves;  they  turned  these  trading 
stations  into  little  cities  and  sultanates,  half  Arab,  half  negro. 
Mombasa  was  among  them.     In  her  time  of  brief  splendor 

Portugal  seized  the 
city;  the  Arabs  won 
it  back;  and  now  Eng- 
land holds  it.  Itliesjust 
south  of  the  equator, 
and  when  we  saw  it  the 
brilliant  green  of  the 
tropic  foliage  showed 
the  town  at  its  best. 

We  were  welcomed 
to  Government  House 
in  most  cordial  fash- 
ion by  the  acting  Gov- 
ernor, Lieutenant- 
Governor  Jackson,  who 
is  not  only  a  trained 
public  official  of  long 
experience  but  a  first- 
class  field  naturalist 
and  a  renowned  big- 
game  hunter;  indeed  I 
could  not  too  warmly 
express  my  apprecia- 
tion of  the  hearty  and 
generous  courtesy  with 
which  we  were  received 
and  treated  alike  by  the  official  and  the  unofficial  world 
throughout  East  Africa.  We  landed  in  the  kind  of  torren- 
tial downpour  that  only  comes  in  the  tropics;  it  reminded 
me  of  Panama  at  certain  moments  in  the  rainy  season. 
That  night  we  were  given  a  dinner  by  the  Mombasa  Club; 
and  it  was  interesting  to  meet  the  merchants  and  planters 
of  the  town  and  the  neighborhood  as  well  as  the  officials. 


F.  C.  Selous 
From  a  photograph  by   \V.   N.  McMiilaii 


THRou(iH  THE  plp:isto(:ene 


-  I 


.Sr% 


The  former  included  not  only  Englishmen  but  also  Ger- 
mans and  Italians;  which  is  quite  as  it  should  be,  for  at 
least  part  of  the  high  inland  region  of  British  East  Africa 
can  be  made  one  kind 
of  "white  man's  coun- 
try"; and  to  achieve 
this  white  men  should 
work  heartily  together, 
doing  scrupulous  jus- 
tice to  the  natives,  but 
remembering  that 
progress  and  develop- 
ment in  this  particular 
kind  of  new  land  de- 
pend exclusively  upon 
the  masterful  leader- 
ship of  the  whites,  and 
that  therefore  it  is 
both  a  calamity  and  a 
crime  to  permit  the 
whites  to  be  riven  in 
sunder  by  hatreds  and 
jealousies.  The  coast 
regions  of  British  East 
Africa  are  not  suited 
for  extensive  white 
settlement  ;  but  the 
hinterland  is,  and 
there  everything 
should  be  done  to  en- 
courage such  settle- 
ment. Non-white 
aliens  should  not  be 
encouraged  to  settle  where  they  come  into  rivalry  with  the 
whites  (exception  being  made  as  regards  certain  particular 
individuals  and  certain  particular  occupations). 

There  are,  of  course,  large  regions  on  the  coast  and  in 


R.  J.  Cuninghame,  known  to  the  Swahilis  as  "Bwana 

Medivu,"  the    master  with  the   beard 

From  a  photog7-aph  by  Edmund  Heller 


10  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

the  interior  where  ordinary  white  settlers  cannot  Hve,  in 
which  it  would  be  wise  to  settle  immigrants  from  India,  and 
there  are  many  positions  in  other  regions  which  it  is  to  the 
advantage  of  everybody  that  the  Indians  should  hold,  be- 
cause there  is  as  yet  no  sign  that  sufficient  numbers  of  white 
men  are  willing  to  hold  them,  while  the  native  blacks, 
although  many  of  them  do  fairly  well  in  unskilled  labor,  are 
not  yet  competent  to  do  the  higher  tasks  which  now  fall  to 
the  share  of  the  Goanese,  and  Moslem  and  non-Moslem 
Indians.  The  small  merchants  who  deal  with  the  natives, 
for  instance,  and  most  of  the  minor  railroad  officials,  belong 
to  these  latter  classes.  I  was  amused,  by  the  way,  at  one 
bit  of  native  nomenclature  in  connection  with  the  Goanese. 
Many  of  the  Goanese  are  now  as  dark  as  most  of  the  other 
Indians;  but  they  are  descended  in  the  male  line  from  the 
early  Portuguese  adventurers  and  conquerors,  who  were  the 
first  white  men  ever  seen  by  the  natives  of  this  coast.  Ac- 
cordingly to  this  day  some  of  the  natives  speak  even  of  the 
dark-skinned  descendants  of  the  subjects  of  King  Henry  the 
Navigator  as  *'the  whites,"  designating  the  Europeans  spe- 
cifically as  English,  Germans,  or  the  like;  just  as  in  out-of- 
the-way  nooks  in  the  far  Northwest  one  of  our  own  red  men 
will  occasionally  be  found  who  still  speaks  of  Americans  and 
Englishmen  as  "Boston  men"  and  "King  George's  men." 

One  of  the  government  farms  was  being  run  by  an  edu- 
cated colored  man  from  Jamaica;  and  we  were  shown  much 
courtesy  by  a  colored  man  from  our  own  country  who  was 
practising  as  a  doctor.  No  one  could  fail  to  be  impressed 
with  the  immense  advance  these  men  represented  as  com- 
pared with  the  native  negro;  and  indeed  to  an  American, 
who  must  necessarily  think  much  of  the  race  problem  at 
home,  it  is  pleasant  to  be  made  to  realize  in  vivid  fashion 
the  progress  the  American  negro  has  made,  by  comparing 
him  with  the  negro  who  dwells  in  Africa  untouched,  or  but 
lightly  touched,  by  white  influence. 

In  such  a  community  as  one  finds  in  Mombasa  or  Nairobi 
one  continually  runs  across  quiet,  modest  men  whose  lives 


THROUCai  THE  PLEISTOCENE 


11 


have  been  fuller  of  wild  adventure  than  the  life  of  a  viking 
leader  of  the  ninth  century.  One  of  the  public  officials 
whom  I  met  at  the  Governor's  table  was  Major  Hinde. 
He  had  at  one  time  served  under  the  government  of  the 
Congo  Free  State;    and,  at  a  crisis  in  the  fortunes  of  the 


■ 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^v^^^l 

□ 

&^^m! 

'1 

^v 

^ 

it 

1  ,.#^^ 

^^K^^^l 

.-.  .*" 

wgm 

lL, 

'■'iiifliiirff 

Mr.  Roosevelt  saying  good-by  in  the  Mombasa  station 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit.  Roosevelt 

State,  when  the  Arab  slave-traders  bade  fair  to  get  the 
upper  hand,  he  was  one  of  the  eight  or  ten  white  men,  repre- 
senting half  as  many  distinct  nationalities^  who  overthrew 
the  savage  soldiery  of  the  slave-traders  and  shattered  beyond 
recovery  the  Arab  power.  They  organized  the  wild  pagan 
tribes  just  as  their  Arab  foes  had  done;  they  fought  in  a 
land  where  deadly  sickness  struck  down  victor  and  van- 
quished with  ruthless  impartiality;    they  found  their  com- 


12  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

missariat  as  best  they  could  wherever  they  happened  to  be; 
often  they  depended  upon  one  day's  victory  to  furnish  the 
ammunition  with  which  to  wage  the  morrow's  battle;  and 
ever  they  had  to  be  on  guard  no  less  against  the  thousands 
of  cannibals  in  their  own  ranks  than  against  the  thousands 
of  cannibals  in  the  hostile  ranks,  for,  on  whichever  side 
they  fought,  after  every  battle  the  warriors  of  the  man-eating 
tribes  watched  their  chance  to  butcher  the  wounded  indis- 
criminately and  to  feast  on  the  bodies  of  the  slain. 

The  most  thrilling  book  of  true  lion  stories  ever  written 
is  Colonel  Patterson's  "The  Man-eaters  of  Tsavo."  Colonel 
Patterson  was  one  of  the  engineers  engaged,  some  ten  or 
twelve  years  back,  in  building  the  Uganda  Railway;  he 
was  in  charge  of  the  work,  at  a  place  called  Tsavo,  when  it 
was  brought  to  a  complete  halt  by  the  ravages  of  a  couple 
of  man-eating  lions  which,  after  many  adventures,  he  finally 
killed.  At  the  dinner  at  the  Mombasa  Club  I  met  one  of 
the  actors  in  a  blood-curdling  tragedy  which  Colonel  Patter- 
son relates.  He  was  a  German,  and,  in  company  with  an 
Italian  friend,  he  went  down  in  the  special  car  of  one  of  the 
English  railroad  officials  to  try  to  kill  a  man-eating  lion 
which  had  carried  away  several  people  from  a  station  on  the 
line.  They  put  the  car  on  a  siding;  as  it  was  hot  the  door 
was  left  open,  and  the  Englishman  sat  by  the  open  window 
to  watch  for  the  lion,  while  the  Italian  finally  lay  down  on 
the  floor  and  the  German  got  into  an  upper  bunk.  Evi- 
dently the  Englishman  must  have  fallen  asleep,  and  the 
lion,  seeing  him  through  the  window,  entered  the  carriage 
by  the  door  to  get  at  him.  The  Italian  waked  to  find  the 
lion  standing  on  him  with  its  hind  feet,  while  its  fore  paws 
were  on  the  seat  as  it  killed  the  unfortunate  Englishman, 
and  the  German,  my  informant,  hearing  the  disturbance, 
leaped  out  of  his  bunk  actually  onto  the  back  of  the  lion. 
The  man-eater,  however,  was  occupied  only  with  his  prey; 
holding  the  body  in  his  mouth  he  forced  his  way  out  through 
the  window- sash,  and  made  his  meal  undisturbed  but  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  from  the  railway  carriage. 


THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 


13 


The  day  after  we  landed  we  boarded  the  train  to  take 
what  seems  to  me,  as  I  think  it  would  to  most  men  fond  of 
natural  history,  the  most  interesting  railway  journey  in  the 
world.  It  was  Governor  Jackson's  special  train,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  his  own  party  and  ours  there  was  only  Selous;  and 
we  travelled  with  the  utmost  comfort  through  a  naturalist's 
wonderland.  All  civilized  governments  are  now  realizing 
that  it  is  their  duty  here  and  there  to  preserve,  unharmed, 


Train  on  the  Uganda  Railway 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 


tracts  of  wild  nature,  with  thereon  the  wild  things  the  de- 
struction of  which  means  the  destruction  of  half  the  charm 
of  wild  nature.  The  English  Government  has  made  a  large 
game  reserve  of  much  of  the  region  on  the  way  to  Nairobi, 
stretching  far  to  the  south,  and  one  mile  to  the  north,  of  the 
track.  The  reserve  swarms  with  game;  it  would  be  of  little 
value  except  as  a  reserve;  and  the  attraction  it  now  offers 
to  travellers  renders  it  an  asset  of  real  consequence  to  the 
whole  colony.  The  wise  people  of  Maine,  in  our  own 
country,  have  discovered  that  intelligent  game  preservation, 
carried  out  in  good  faith,  and  in  a  spirit  of  common-sense  as 


14  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

far  removed  from  mushy  sentimentality  as  from  brutality, 
results  in  adding  one  more  to  the  State's  natural  resources 
of  value;  and  in  consequence  there  are  more  moose  and 
deer  in  Maine  to-day  than  there  were  forty  years  ago;  there 
is  a  better  chance  for  every  man  m  Maine,  rich  or  poor,  pro- 
vided that  he  is  not  a  game  butcher,  to  enjoy  his  share  of 
good  hunting;  and  the  number  of  sportsmen  and  tourists 
attracted  to  the  State  adds  very  appreciably  to  the  means 
of  livelihood  of  the  citizen.  Game  reserves  should  not  be 
established  where  they  are  detrimental  to  the  interests  of 
large  bodies  of  settlers,  nor  yet  should  they  be  nominally 
established  in  regions  so  remote  that  the  only  men  really 
interfered  with  are  those  who  respect  the  law,  while  a  pre- 
mium is  thereby  put  on  the  activity  of  the  unscrupulous 
persons  who  are  eager  to  break  it.  Similarly,  game  laws 
should  be  drawn  primarily  in  the  interest  of  the  whole 
people,  keeping  steadily  in  mind  certain  facts  that  ought 
to  be  self-evident  to  every  one  above  the  intellectual  level 
of  those  well-meaning  persons  who  apparently  think  that 
all  shooting  is  wrong  and  that  man  could  continue  to  exist 
if  all  wild  animals  were  allowed  to  increase  unchecked. 
There  must  be  recognition  of  the  fact  that  almost  any  wild 
animal  of  the  defenceless  type,  if  its  multiplication  were 
unchecked  while  its  natural  enemies,  the  dangerous  carni- 
vores, were  killed,  would  by  its  simple  increase  crowd  man 
off  the  planet;  and  of  the  further  fact  that,  far  short  of 
such  increase,  a  time  speedily  comes  when  the  existence  of 
too  much  game  is  incompatible  with  the  interests,  or  indeed 
the  existence,  of  the  cultivator.  As  in  most  other  matters, 
it  is  only  the  happy  mean  which  is  healthy  and  rational. 
There  should  be  certain  sanctuaries  and  nurseries  where 
game  can  live  and  breed  absolutely  unmolested;  and  else- 
where the  laws  should  so  far  as  possible  provide  for  the 
continued  existence  of  the  game  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
allow  a  reasonable  amount  of  hunting  on  fair  terms  to  any 
hardy  and  vigorous  man  fond  of  the  sport,  and  yet  not  in 
sufficient  numbers  to  jeopard  the  interests  of  the  actual 


THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 


15 


settler,  the  tiller  of  the  soil,  the  man  whose  well-being 
should  be  the  prime  object  to  be  kept  in  mind  by  every 
statesman.      Game    butchery    is   as    objectionable   as    any 


Mr.  Roosevelt,  Governor  Jackson,  Mr.  Selous,  and  Dr.  Mearns,  riding 
in  front  of  the  engine  on  the  way  to  Kapiti 
Frofn.  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

Other  form  of  wanton  cruelty  or  barbarity;  but  to  protest 
against  all  hunting  of  game  is  a  sign  of  softness  of  head,  not 
of  soundness  of  heart. 


16  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

In  the  creation  of  the  great  game  reserve  through  which 
the  Uganda  Railway  runs  the  British  Government  has 
conferred  a  boon  upon  mankind,  and  no  less  in  the  enact- 
ment and  enforcement  of  the  game  laws  in  the  African 
provinces  generally.  Of  course  experience  will  show  where, 
from  time  to  time,  there  must  be  changes.  In  Uganda 
proper  buffaloes  and  hippos  throve  so  under  protection  as 
to  become  sources  of  grave  danger  not  only  to  the  crops  but 
to  the  lives  of  the  natives,  and  they  had  to  be  taken  off  the 
protected  list  and  classed  as  vermin,  to  be  shot  in  any  num- 
ber at  any  time;  and  only  the  great  demand  for  ivory 
prevented  the  necessity  of  following  the  same  course  with 
regard  to  the  elephant;  while  recently  in  British  East 
Africa  the  increase  of  the  zebras,  and  the  harm  they  did  to 
the  crops  of  the  settlers,  rendered  it  necessary  to  remove  a 
large  measure  of  the  protection  formerly  accorded  them, 
and  in  some  cases  actually  to  encourage  their  slaughter; 
and  increase  in  settlement  may  necessitate  further  changes. 
But,  speaking  generally,  much  wisdom  and  foresight,  highly 
creditable  to  both  government  and  people,  have  been 
shown  in  dealing  with  and  preserving  East  African  game 
while  at  the  same  time  safeguarding  the  interests  of  the 
settlers. 

On  our  train  the  locomotive  was  fitted  with  a  comfort- 
able seat  across  the  cow-catcher,  and  on  this,  except  at  meal- 
time, I  spent  most  of  the  hours  of  daylight,  usually  in  com- 
pany with  Selous,  and  often  with  Governor  Jackson,  to 
whom  the  territory  and  the  game  were  alike  familiar.  The 
first  afternoon  we  did  not  see  many  wild  animals,  but  birds 
abounded,  and  the  scenery  was  both  beautiful  and  interest- 
ing. A  black-and-white  hornbill,  feeding  on  the  track,  rose 
so  late  that  we  nearly  caught  it  with  our  hands;  guinea-fowl 
and  francolin,  and  occasionally  bustard,  rose  near  by;  brill- 
iant rollers,  sun-birds,  bee-eaters,  and  weaver-birds  flew 
beside  us,  or  sat  unmoved  among  the  trees  as  the  train 
passed.  In  the  dusk  we  nearly  ran  over  a  hyena;  a  year 
or  two  previously  the  train  actually  did  run  over  a  lioness 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  some  members  of  his  caravan 
From  a  photograph  by  Keriiiit  Roosevelt 


18  Ainu  AN    GAME  TRAILS 

one  night,  and  the  conductor  brought  In  her  head  In  triumph. 
In  fact,  there  have  been  continual  mishaps  such  as  could 
only  happen  to  a  railroad  In  the  Pleistocene!  The  very 
night  we  went  up  there  was  an  Interruption  in  the  telegraph 
service  due  to  giraffes  having  knocked  down  some  of  the 
wires  and  a  pole  In  crossing  the  track;  and  elephants  have 
more  than  once  performed  the  same  feat.  Two  or  three 
times,  at  night,  giraffes  have  been  run  into  and  killed;  once 
a  rhinoceros  was  killed,  the  engine  being  damaged  In  the 
encounter;  and  on  other  occasions  the  rhino  has  only  just 
left  the  track  in  time,  once  the  beast  being  struck  and  a 
good  deal  hurt,  the  engine  again  being  somewhat  crippled. 
But  the  lions  now  offer,  and  have  always  offered,  the  chief 
source  of  unpleasant  excitement.  Throughout  East  Africa 
the  lions  continually  take  to  man-eating  at  the  expense  of 
the  native  tribes,  and  white  hunters  are  continually  being 
killed  or  crippled  by  them.  At  the  lonely  stations  on  the 
railroad  the  two  or  three  subordinate  officials  often  live 
In  terror  of  some  fearsome  brute  that  has  taken  to  haunting 
the  vicinity;  and  every  few  months,  at  some  one  of  these 
stations,  a  man  is  killed,  or  badly  hurt  by,  or  narrowly 
escapes  from,  a  prowling  lion. 

The  stations  at  which  the  train  stopped  were  neat  and 
attractive;  and  besides  the  Indian  officials  there  were 
usually  natives  from  the  neighborhood.  Some  of  these 
might  be  dressed  in  the  fez  and  shirt  and  trousers  which 
indicate  a  coming  under  the  white  man's  influence,  or 
which,  rather  curiously,  may  also  indicate  Mohammedan- 
ism. But  most  of  the  natives  are  still  wild  pagans,  and 
many  of  them  are  unchanged  In  the  slightest  particular 
from  what  their  forefathers  were  during  the  countless  ages 
when  they  alone  were  the  heirs  of  the  land — a  land  which 
they  were  utterly  powerless  In  any  way  to  Improve.  Some 
of  the  savages  we  saw  wore  red  blankets,  and  in  deference 
to  white  prejudice  draped  them  so  as  to  hide  their  naked- 
ness. But  others  appeared — men  and  women — with  liter- 
ally not  one  stitch  of  clothing,  although  they  might  have 


THROUGH  THE   PLEISTOCENE  19 

rather  elaborate  hair-dresses,  and  masses  of  metal  ornaments 
on  their  arms  and  legs.  In  the  region  where  one  tribe 
dwelt  all  the  people  had  their  front  teeth  filed  to  sharp 
points;  it  was  strange  to  see  a  group  of  these  savages, stark 
naked,  with  oddly  shaved  heads  and  filed  teeth,  armed 
with  primitive  bows  and  arrows,  stand  gravely  gazing  at 
the  train  as  it  rolled  into  some  station;  and  none  the  less 
strange,  by  the  way,  because  the  locomotive  was  a  Bald- 
win, brought  to  Africa  across  the  great  ocean  from  our 
own  country.  One  group  of  women,  nearly  nude^  had  their 
upper  arms  so  tightly  bound  with  masses  of  bronze  or  cop- 
per wire  that  their  muscles  v/ere  completely  malformed. 
So  tightly  was  the  wire  wrapped  round  the  upper  third  of 
the  upper  arm,  that  it  was  reduced  to  about  one-half  of 
its  normal  size;  and  the  muscles  could  only  play,  and  that 
in  deformed  fashion,  below  this  unyielding  metal  bandage. 
Why  the  arms  did  not  mortify  it  was  hard  to  say;  and  their 
freedom  of  use  was  so  hampered  as  to  make  it  difficult  to 
understand  how  men  or  women  whose  whole  lives  are  passed 
in  one  or  another  form  of  manual  labor  could  inflict  upon 
themselves  such  crippling  and  pointless  punishment. 

Next  morning  we  were  in  the  game  country,  and  as  we 
sat  on  the  seat  over  the  cow-catcher  it  was  literally  like 
passing  through  a  vast  zoological  garden.  Indeed  no  such 
railway  journey  can  be  taken  on  any  other  line  in  any  other 
land.  At  one  time  we  passed  a  herd  of  a  dozen  or  so  of 
great  giraffes,  cows  and  calves,  cantering  along  through  the 
open  woods  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  to  the  right  of  the 
train.  Again,  still  closer,  four  waterbuck  cows,  their  big 
ears  thrown  forward,  stared  at  us  without  moving  until 
we  had  passed.  Hartebeests  were  everywhere;  one  herd 
was  on  the  track,  and  when  the  engine  whistled  they  bucked 
and  sprang  with  ungainly  agility  and  galloped  clear  of  the 
danger.  A  long-tailed  straw-colored  monkey  ran  from  one 
tree  to  another.  Huge  black  ostriches  appeared  from 
time  to  time.  Once  a  troop  of  impalla,  close  by  the  track, 
took  fright;   and  as  the  beautiful  creatures  fled  we  saw  now 


20  AFRICAN   GAMP:   TRAILS 

one  and  now  another  bound  clear  over  the  high  bushes.  A 
herd  of  zebra  clattered  across  a  cutting  of  the  line  not  a 
hundred  yards  ahead  of  the  train;  the  whistle  hurried  their 
progress,  but  only  for  a  moment,  and  as  we  passed  they 
were  already  turning  round  to  gaze.  The  wild  creatures 
were  in  their  sanctuary,  and  they  knew  it.  Some  of  the 
settlers  have  at  times  grumbled  at  this  game  reserve  being 
kept  of  such  size;  but  surely  it  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
possessions  the  country  could  have.  The  lack  of  water  in 
parts,  the  prevalence  in  other  parts  of  diseases  harmful  to 
both  civilized  man  and  domestic  cattle,  render  this  great 
tract  of  country  the  home  of  all  homes  for  the  creatures  of 
the  waste.  The  protection  given  these  wild  creatures  is 
genuine,  not  nominal;  they  are  preserved,  not  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  few,  but  for  the  good  of  all  who  choose  to 
see  this  strange  and  attractive  spectacle;  and  from  this  nur- 
sery and  breeding-ground  the  overflow  keeps  up  the  stock 
of  game  in  the  adjacent  land,  to  the  benefit  of  the  settler 
to  whom  the  game  gives  fresh  meat,  and  to  the  benefit  of 
the  whole  country  because  of  the  attraction  it  furnishes  to 
all  who  desire  to  visit  a  veritable  happy  hunting  ground. 

Soon  after  lunch  we  drew  up  at  the  little  station  of 
Kapiti  Plains,  where  our  safari  was  awaiting  us;  "safari" 
being  the  term  employed  throughout  East  Africa  to  denote 
both  the  caravan  with  which  one  makes  an  expedition  and 
the  expedition  itself.  Our  aim  being  to  cure  and  send  home 
specimens  of  all  the  common  big  game — in  addition  to  as 
large  a  series  as  possible  of  the  small  mammals  and  birds 
— it  was  necessary  to  carry  an  elaborate  apparatus  of 
naturalists'  supplies;  we  had  brought  with  us,  for  instance, 
four  tons  of  fine  salt,  as  to  cure  the  skins  of  the  big  beasts 
is  a  herculean  labor  under  the  best  conditions;  we  had 
hundreds  of  traps  for  the  small  creatures;  many  boxes 
of  shot-gun  cartridges  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  rifle 
cartridges  which  alone  would  be  necessar}^  on  a  hunting 
trip;  and,  in  short,  all  the  many  impedimenta  needed  if 
scientific  work  is  to  be  properly  done  under  modern  con- 


THROUGH  THE   PLEISTOCENE 


21 


ditions.  Few  laymen  have  any  idea  of  the  expense  and 
pains  which  must  be  undergone  in  order  to  provide  groups 
of  mounted  big  animals  from  fiir-off  lands,  such  as  we  see 


A  large  American  flag  was  floating  over  my  own  tent 
From  a  photograph  by  Kcriiiit  Roosevelt 

in  museums  like  the  National  Museum  in  Washington 
and  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  in  New 
York.  The  modern  naturalist  must  realize  that  in  some  of 
its  branches  his  profession,  while  more  than  ever  a  science, 
has  also  become  an  art.     So  our  preparations  were  neces- 


22  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

sarily  on  a  very  large  scale;  and  as  we  drew  up  at  the  station 
the  array  of  porters  and  of  tents  looked  as  if  some  small 
military  expedition  was  about  to  start.  As  a  compliment, 
which  I  much  appreciated,  a  large  American  flag  was  float- 
ing over  my  own  tent;  and  in  the  front  line,  flanking  this 
tent  on  either  hand,  were  other  big  tents  for  the  members 
of  the  party,  with  a  dining  tent  and  skinning  tent;  while  be- 
hind were  the  tents  of  the  two  hundred  porters,  the  gun- 


The  askaris  and  porters  drawn 
In  front  of  the  tent  stood  the  men  in  two  lines;  the  first  containing  the 

From  a />hotograpli 

bearers,  the  tent  boys,  the  askaris  or  native  soldiers,  and 
the  horse  boys  or  saises.  In  front  of  the  tents  stood  the 
men  in  two  lines;  the  first  containing  the  fifteen  askaris, 
the  second  the  porters  with  their  headmen.  The  askaris 
were  uniformed,  each  in  a  red  fez,  a  blue  blouse,  and  white 
knickerbockers,  and  each  carrying  his  rifle  and  belt.  The 
porters  were  chosen  from  several  difl^erent  tribes  or  races  to 
minimize  the  danger  of  combination  in  the  event  of  mutiny. 
Here  and  there  in  East  Africa  one  can  utilize  ox  wagons, 
or  pack  trains  of  donkeys;  but  for  a  considerable  expedition 
it  is  still  best  to  use  a  safari  of  native  porters,  of  the  type 
by  which  the  commerce  and  exploration  of  the  country  have 


THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 


23 


always  been  carried  on.  The  backbone  of  such  a  safari  is 
generally  composed  of  Swahili,  the  coast  men,  negroes  who 
have  acquired  the  Moslem  religion,  together  with  a  partially 
Arabicized  tongue  and  a  strain  of  Arab  blood  from  the 
Arab  warriors  and  traders  who  have  been  dominant  in  the 
coast  towns  for  so  many  centuries.  It  was  these  Swahili 
trading  caravans,  under  Arab  leadership,  which,  in  their 
quest  for  ivory  and  slaves,  trod  out  the  routes  which  the 


up  in  line  to  greet  us 

fifteen  askaris,  the  second  the  porters  with  their  headmen 

by  Edmund  Heller 

early  white  explorers  followed.  Without  their  work  as  a 
preliminary  the  work  of  the  white  explorers  could  not  have 
been  done;  and  it  was  the  Swahili  porters  themselves  who 
rendered  this  work  itself  possible.  To  this  day  every  hunter, 
trader,  missionary,  or  explorer  must  use  either  a  Swahili 
safari  or  one  modelled  on  the  Swahili  basis.  The  part 
played  by  the  white-topped  ox  wagon  in  the  history  of  South 
Africa^  and  by  the  camel  caravan  in  North  Africa,  has  been 
played  in  middle  Africa  by  the  files  of  strong,  patient, 
childlike  savages,  who  have  borne  the  burdens  of  so  many 
masters  and  employers  hither  and  thither,  through  and 
across,  the  dark  heart  of  the  continent. 


24  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Equatorial  Africa  is  in  most  places  none  too  healthy  a 
place  for  the  white  man,  and  he  must  care  for  himself  as  he 
would  scorn  to  do  in  the  lands  of  pine  and  birch  and  frosty 
weather.  Camping  in  the  Rockies  or  the  North  Woods 
can  with  advantage  be  combined  with  "roughing  it";  and 
the  early  pioneers  of  the  West,  the  explorers,  prospectors, 
and  hunters,  who  always  roughed  it,  were  as  hardy  as  bears, 
and  lived  to  a  hale  old  age,  if  Indians  and  accidents  per- 


Our  first  camp,  Kapiti  Plains  station,  on  a  bare,  dry 

FroJH  a  pJwtograph 

mitted.  But  in  tropic  Africa  a  lamentable  proportion  of 
the  early  explorers  paid  in  health  or  life  for  the  hardships 
they  endured;  and  throughout  most  of  the  country  no  man 
can  long  rough  it,  in  the  Western  and  Northern  sense, 
with  impunity. 

At  Kapiti  Plains  our  tents,  our  accommodations  gener- 
ally, seemed  almost  too  comfortable  for  men  who  knew 
camp  life  only  on  the  Great  Plains,  in  the  Rockies,  and  in 
the  North  Woods.  My  tent  had  a  fly  which  was  to  protect 
it  from  the  great  heat;  there  was  a  little  rear  extension  in 
which  I  bathed — a  hot  bath,  never  a  cold  bath,  is  almost  a 
tropic  necessity;    there  was  a  ground  canvas,  of  vital  mo- 


THROUGH  THE   PLETSIOCENE 


25 


ment  in  a  land  of  ticks,  jiggers,  and  scorpions;  and  a  cot 
to  sleep  on,  so  as  to  be  raised  from  the  ground.  Quite  a 
contrast  to  life  on  the  round-up!  Then  I  had  two  tent  boys 
to  see  after  my  belongings,  and  to  wait  at  table  as  well  as  in 
the  tent.  Ali,  a  Mohammedan  mulatto  (Arab  and  negro), 
was  the  chief  of  the  two,  and  spoke  some  English,  while 
under  him  was  "Bill,"  a  speechless  black  boy;  Ali  being 
particularly    faithful    and    efficient.     Two    other    Moham- 


plain  covered  with  brown  and  withered  grass 
by  Edmund  Heller 


medan  negroes,  clad  like  the  askaris,  reported  to  me  as  my 
gun-bearers,  Muhamed  and  Bakari;  seemingly  excellent 
men,  loyal  and  enduring,  no  trackers,  but  with  keen  eyes 
for  game,  and  the  former  speaking  a  little  English.  My 
two  horse  boys,  or  saises,  were  both  pagans.  One,  Hamisi, 
must  have  had  in  his  veins  Galla  or  other  non-negro  blood; 
derived  from  the  Hamitic,  or  bastard  Semitic,  or  at  least 
non-negro,  tribes  which,  pushing  slowly  and  fitfully  south- 
ward and  south-westward  among  the  negro  peoples,  have 
created  an  intricate  tangle  of  ethnic  and  linguistic  types 
from  the  middle  Nile  to  far  south  of  the  equator.  Hamisi 
always  wore  a  long  feather  in  one  of  his  sandals,  the  only 


26  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

ornament  he  affected.  The  other  sais  was  a  silent,  gentle- 
mannered  black  heathen;  his  name  was  Simba,  a  lion, 
and  as  I  shall  later  show  he  was  not  unworthy  of  it.  The 
two  horses  for  which  these  men  cared  were  stout,  quiet 
little  beasts;  one,  a  sorrel,  I  named  Tranquillity,  and  the 
other,  a  brown,  had  so  much  the  coblike  build  of  a  zebra 
that  we  christened  him  Zebra-shape.  One  of  Kermit's 
two  horses,  by  the  way,  was  more  romantically  named  after 
Huandaw,  the  sharp-eared  steed  of  the  Mabinogion.  Cun- 
inghame,  lean,  sinewy,  bearded,  exactly  the  type  of  hunter 
and  safari  manager  that  one  would  wish  for  such  an  ex- 
pedition as  ours,  had  ridden  up  with  us  on  the  train,  and  at 
the  station  we  met  Tarlton,  and  also  two  settlers  of  the 
neighborhood,  Sir  Alfred  Pease  and  Mr.  Clifford  Hill. 
Hill  was  an  Africander.  He  and  his  cousin,  Harold  Hill, 
after  serving  through  the  South  African  war,  had  come  to 
the  new  country  of  British  East  Africa  to  settle,  and  they 
represented  the  ideal  type  of  settler  for  taking  the  lead  in  the 
spread  of  empire.  They  were  descended  from  the  English 
colonists  who  came  to  South  Africa  in  1820;  they  had  never 
been  in  England,  and  neither  had  Tarlton.  It  was  exceed- 
ingly interesting  to  meet  these  Australians  and  Africanders, 
who  typified  in  their  lives  and  deeds  the  greatness  of  the 
English  Empire,  and  yet  had  never  seen  England. 

As  for  Sir  Alfred,  Kermit  and  I  were  to  be  his  guests 
for  the  next  fortnight,  and  we  owe  primarily  to  him,  to  his 
mastery  of  hunting  craft,  and  his  unvarying  and  generous 
hospitality  and  kindness,  the  pleasure  and  success  of  our 
introduction  to  African  hunting.  His  life  had  been  one 
of  such  varied  interest  as  has  only  been  possible  in  our  own 
generation.  He  had  served  many  years  in  Parliament; 
he  had  for  some  years  been  a  magistrate  in  a  peculiarly  re- 
sponsible post  in  the  Transvaal;  he  had  journeyed  and 
hunted  and  explored  in  the  northern  Sahara,  in  the  Soudan, 
in  Somaliland,  in  Abyssinia;  and  now  he  was  ranching 
in  East  Africa.  A  singularly  good  rider  and  one  of  the  best 
game  shots  I  have  ever  seen,  it  would  have  been  impossible 


THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 


27 


to  have  found  a  kinder  host  or  a  hunter  better  fitted  to 
teach  us  how  to  begin  our  work  with  African  big  game. 

At  Kapiti  station  there  was  Httle  beyond  the  station 
buildings,  a  "compound"  or  square  enclosure  in  which 
there  were  many  natives,  and  an  Indian  store.  The  last 
was  presided  over  by  a  turbaned  Mussulman,  the  agent  of 
other  Indian  traders  who  did  business  in  Machakos-boma, 


Porters  and  their  tents 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Iden  Loriitg 


a  native  village  a  dozen  miles  distant;  the  means  of  com- 
munication being  two-wheeled  carts,  each  drawn  by  four 
humped  oxen,  driven  by  a  wellnigh  naked  savage. 

For  forty-eight  hours  we  were  busy  arranging  our  out- 
fit; and  the  naturalists  took  much  longer.  The  provisions 
were  those  usually  included  in  an  African  hunting  or  ex- 
ploring trip,  save  that,  in  memory  of  my  days  in  the  West,  I 
included  in  each  provision  box  a  few  cans  of  Boston  baked 
beans,  California  peaches,  and  tomatoes.     We  had  plenty 


28  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

of  warm  bedding,  for  the  nights  are  cold  at  high  ahitu.des, 
even  under  the  equator.  While  hunting  I  wore  heavy 
shoes,  with  hobnails  or  rubber  soles;  khaki  trousers,  the 
knees  faced  with  leather,  and  the  legs  buttoning  tight  from 
the  knee  to  below  the  ankle,  to  avoid  the  need  of  leggings; 
a  khaki-colored  army  shirt;  and  a  sun  helmet,  which  I 
wore  in  deference  to  local  advice,  instead  of  my  beloved 
and  far  more  convenient  slouch  hat.  My  rifles  were  an 
army  Springfield,  30-calibre,  stocked  and  sighted  to  suit 
myself;  a  Winchester  405;  and  a  double-barrelled  500-450 
Holland,  a  beautiful  weapon  presented  to  me  by  some 
English  friends.* 

Kermit's  battery  was  of  the  same  type,  except  that  in- 
stead of  a  Springfield  he  had  another  Winchester  shooting 
the  army  ammunition,  and  his  double-barrel  was  a  Rigby. 
In  addition  I  had  a  Fox  No.  12  shot-gun;  no  better  gun 
was  ever  made. 

There  was  one  other  bit  of  impedimenta,  less  usual  for 
African  travel,  but  perhaps  almost  as  essential  for  real  en- 
joyment even  on  a  hunting  trip,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  length. 

*  Mr.  E.  N.  Buxton  took  the  lead  in  the  matter  when  he  heard  that  I  intended 
making  a  trip  after  big  game  in  Africa.  I  received  the  riiie  at  the  White  House, 
while  I  was  President.     Inside  the  case  was  the  following  hst  of  donors-. 

LIST  OF  ZOOLOGISTS  AND  SPORTSMEN  WHO  ARE  DONORS  OF  A 
DOUBLE   ELEPHANT  RIFLE   TO   THE   HON.   THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT,    PRESIDENT   U.    S.   A. 

IN   RECOGNITION   OF   HIS    SERVICES    ON   BEHALF    OF    THE    PRESERV-ATION    OF    SPECIES 

BY   MEANS   OF   NATIONAL   PARKS   AND   FOREST   RESERVES, 

AND    BY    OTHER   MEANS 

E.  N.  BuxTON,  Esq. 

Rt.  Hon.  Lord  Avebury,  D.C.L.     ("The  Pleasures  of  Life,"  etc.) 

Major-Gen.    Sir   F.    Reginald    Wingate,    K.C.B.      (Governor-General   of   th> 

Soudan.) 
Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder,  Bart. 
Hon.  N.  C.  Rothschild. 

The  Earl  of  Lonsdale.     (Master  of  Hounds.) 
Sir  R.  G.  H.-vrvey,  Bart. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  Curzon  of  Kedleston,  G.C.S.L,  G.C.I.E. 
St.  George  Littledale,  Esq. 

Dr.  p.  Chalmers  Mitchell,  F.R.S.,  F.Z.S.     (Secretary  of  the  Zoological  Soc.) 
C.  E.  Green,  Esq.     (Master  of  Essex  Hounds.) 


THROUGH   THE   PLEISTOCENE  29 

This  was  the  ''Pigskin  Library,"  so  called  because  most 
of  the  books  were  bound  in  pigskin.  They  were  carried 
in  a  light  aluminum  and  oil-clotii  case,  which,  with  its  con- 
tents, weighed  a  little  less  than  sixty  pounds,  making  a 
load  for  one  porter.  Including  a  few  volumes  carried  in 
the  various  bags,  so  that  I  might  be  sure  always  to  have  one 
with  me,  and  Gregorovius,  read  on  the  voyage  outward, 
the  list  was  as  printed  in  Appendix  F. 

It  represents  in  part  Kermit's  taste,  in  part  mine;  and, 
I  need  hardly  say,  it  also  represents  in  no  way  all  the  books 
we  most  care  for,  but  merely  those  which,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  we  thought  we  should  like  to  take  on  this  par- 
ticular trip. 

I  used  my  Whitman  tree  army  saddle  and  my  army 
field-glasses;  but,  in  addition,  for  studying  the  habits  of 
the  game,  I  carried  a  telescope  given  me  on  the  boat  by  a 
fellow-traveller  and  big-game  hunter,  an  Irish  hussar  cap- 
tain from  India — and  incidentally  I  am  out  in  my  guess  if 
this  same  Irish  hussar  captain  be  not  worth  watching 
should  his  country  ever  again  be  engaged  in  war.     I  had 


F.  C:  Selous,  Esq.     ("A  Hunter's  Wanderings,"  etc.) 

Count  Blucher. 

Lieut. -Col.  C.  Delme  Radcliffe,  C.M.G.,  M.V.O. 

Maurice  Egerton,  Esq. 

Lord  Desborough,  C.V.O. 

Captain  M.  McNeill. 

Claude  H.  Tritton,  Esq. 

J.  Turner-Turner,  Esq. 

Hon.  L.  W.  Rothschild,  M.P. 

Rt.  Hon..  Sir  E.   Grey,  Bart.,  ALP.     (Foreign  Secretary  and  author  of  "Dry 

Fly  Fishing.") 
Sir  M.  de  C.  Findlay,  C.M.G.     (British Minister  at  Dresden.) 
C.  Phillipps-Wolley,  Esq.,  F.R.G.S.     ("Sport  in  the  Caucasus.") 
Rt.  Hon.-  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyax,  Bart.,  D.C.L.     ("The  American  Revolution.") 
Warburton  Pike,  Esq. 
Sir  Wm.  E.  Garstin,  G.C.M.G. 

His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  K.G.     ("A  Great  Estate.") 
Her  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Bedford. 
Lord  Brassey,  G.C.B.,  M.V.O.     (Owner  of  The  Sunbeam.) 
Hon.  T.  a.  Brassey.     (Editor  of  the  Naval  Annual) 
Rhys  Williams,  Esq. 
Major-Gen.  A.  A.  A.  Kinloch,  C.B.     ("Large  Game  in  Thibet.") 


30  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

a  very  ingenious  beam  or  scale  for  weighing  game,  designed 
and  presented  to  me  by  my  friend^  Mr.  Thompson  Seton. 
I  had  a  slicker  for  wet  weather,  an  army  overcoat,  and  a 
mackinaw  jacket  for  cold,  if  I  had  to  stay  out  overnight  in 
the  mountains.  In  my  pockets  I  carried,  of  course,  a  knife, 
a  compasS;,  and  a  water-proof  match-box.  Finally,  just  be- 
fore leaving  home,  I  had  been  sent,  for  good  luck,  a  gold- 
mounted  rabbit's  foot,  by  Mr.  John  L.  Sullivan,  at  one  time 
ring  champion  of  the  world. 

Our  camp  was  on  a  bare,  dry  plain,  covered  with  brown 
and  withered  grass.  At  most  hours  of  the  day  v^'e  could 
see  round  about,  perhaps  a  mile  or  so  distant,  or  less,  the 
game  feeding.  South  of  the  track  the  reserve  stretched  for 
a  long  distance;  north  it  went  for  but  a  mile,  just  enough  to 
prevent  thoughtless  or  cruel  people  from  shooting  as  they 
went  by  in  the  train.  There  was  very  little  water;  what 
we  drank,  by  the  way,  was  carefully  boiled.     The  drawback 


Sir  Wm.  Lee-Warner,  K.C.S.I.     ("The  Protected  Princes  of  India.") 

The  Rt.  Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London. 

Major-Gen.  Dalrymple  White. 

Colonel  Claude  Cane. 

Rt.  Hon.  Sydney  Buxton,  M.P.     (Postmaster  General,  "Fishing  and  Shooting.") 

Major  C.  E.  Radclyffe,  D.S.O. 

Sir  a.  E.  Pease,  Bart.     ("Cleveland  Hounds.") 

Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  K.C.B.,  G.C.M.G.     ("The  Uganda  Protectorate.") 

Abel  Chapman,  Esq.     ("Wild  Spain.") 

J.  G.  MiLLAis,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     ("A  Breath  from  the  Veldt.") 

E.  Lort-Phillips,  Esq.     (Author  of  ornithological  works.) 
R.  Kearton,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     ("Wild  Nature's  Ways.") 

J.  H.  GuRNEY,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     (Works  on  ornithology.) 

F.  J.  Jackson,  C.B.,  C.M.G.,  Lieut. -Governor  East  African  Protectorate. 

("Big  Game,"  Badminton  Library.) 
Col.  Sir  F.  Lugard,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B.,  D.S.O. 
Lady  Lugard.     ("A  Tropical  Dependency.") 
Sir  Clement  L.  Hill,  K.C.B.,  M.P.     (Late  Head  of  the  African  Department; 

Foreign  O.) 
Sir  H.  Seton-Karr,  M.P.,  C.M.G.     ("My  Sporting  Holidays.") 
Captain  Boyd  Alexander.     ("From  the  Niger  to  the  Nile.") 
Sir  J.  Kirk,  K.C.B.,  G.C.M.G.     (Dr.  Livingstone's  companion,  1858-64.) 

MORETON   FrEWEN,    EsQ. 

The  Earl  of  Warwick. 

P.  L.  Sclater,  Esq.,  D.Sc,  Ph.D.     (Late  Sec.  Zool.  Soc.) 

Col.  J.  H.  Patterson,  D.S.O.     ("The  Man-Eatcrs  of  Tsavo.") 


THROUGH   THE   PLEISTOCENE 


31 


to  the  camp,  and  to  all  this  plains  region,  lay  in  the  ticks, 
which  swarmed,  and  were  a  scourge  to  man  and  beast. 
Every  evening  the  saises  picked  them  by  hundreds  off 
each  horse;  and  some  of  our  party  were  at  times  so  bitten 
by  the  noisome  little  creatures  that  they  coulJ  hardly  sleep 
at  night,  and  in  one  or  two  cases  the  man  was  actually  laid 
up  for  a  couple  of  days;  and  two  of  our  horses  ultimately 
got  tick  fever,  but  recovered. 

In  mid-afternoon  of  our  third  day  in  this  camp  we  at 
last  had  matters  in  such  shape  that  Kermit  and   I   could 


My  first  "tommy  "  (Thomson's  gazelle; 
Frotn  a  photograph  by  Edmu7id  Heller 


begin  our  hunting;  and  forth  we  rode,  he  with  Hill,  I  with 
Sir  Alfred,  each  accompanied  by  his  gun-bearers  and  sais, 
and  by  a  few  porters  to  carry  in  the  game.  For  two  or 
three  miles  our  little  horses  shuffled  steadily  northward 
across  the  desolate  flats  of  short  grass  until  the  ground 
began  to  rise  here  and  there  into  low  hills,  or  koppies,  with 
rock-strewn  tops.  It  should  have  been  the  rainy  season, 
the  season  of  "the  big  rains";  but  the  rains  were  late,  as 
the  parched  desolation  of  the  landscape  bore  witness;  nev- 
ertheless there  were  two  or  three  showers  that  afternoon. 
We  soon  began  to  see  game_,  but  the  flatness  of  the  country 
and  the  absence  of  all  cover  made  stalking  a  matter  of  diffi- 


.S2  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

culty;  the  only  bushes  were  a  few  sparsely  scattered  mimo- 
sas; stunted  things,  two  or  three  feet  high,  scantily  leaved, 
but  abounding  in  bulbous  swellings  on  the  twigs,  and  in 
long,  sharp  spikes  of  thorns.  There  were  herds  of  harte- 
beest  and  wildebeest,  and  smaller  parties  of  beautiful  ga- 
zelles. The  last  were  of  two  kinds,  named  severally  after 
their  discoverers,  the  explorers  Grant  and  Thomson;  many 
of  the  creatures  of  this  region  commemorate  the  men — 
Schilling,  Jackson,  Neuman,  Kirke,  Chanler,  Abbot — 
who  first  saw  and  hunted  them  and  brought  them  to  the 
notice  of  the  scientific  world.  The  Thomson's  gazelles,  or 
Tommies  as  they  are  always  locally  called,  are  pretty,  alert 
little  things,  half  the  size  of  our  prongbuck;  their  big- 
brothers,  the  Grant's,  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of 
all  antelopes,  being  rather  larger  than  a  whitetail  deer, 
with  singularly  graceful  carriage,  while  the  old  bucks  carry 
long  lyre-shaped  horns. 

Distances  are  deceptive  on  the  bare  plains  under  the 
African  sunlight.  I  saw  a  fine  Grant,  and  stalked  him  in 
a  rain  squall;  but  the  bullets  from  the  little  Springfield 
fell  short  as  he  raced  away  to  safety;  I  had  underestimated 
the  range.  Then  I  shot^  for  the  table,  a  good  buck  of  the 
smaller  gazelle,  at  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  yards;  the 
bullet  went,  a  little  high,  breaking  his  back  above  the 
shoulders. 

But  what  I  really  wanted  were  two  good  specimens,  bull 
and  cow,  of  the  wildebeest.  These  powerful,  ungainly 
beasts^  a  variety  of  the  brindled  gnu  or  blue  wildebeest  of 
South  Africa,  are  interesting  creatures  of  queer,  eccentric 
habits.  With  their  shaggy  manes,  heavy  forequarters,  and 
generally  bovine  look,  they  remind  one  somewhat  of  our 
bison,  at  a  distance,  but  of  course  they  are  much  less  bulky, 
a  big  old  bull  in  prime  condition  rarely  reaching  a  weight  of 
seven  hundred  pounds.  They  are  beasts  of  the  open  plains, 
ever  alert  and  wary;  the  cows,  with  their  calves,  and  one  or 
more  herd  bulls,  keep  in  parties  of  several  score;  the  old 
bulls,  singly,  or  two  or  three  together,  keep  by  themselves, 


A  herd  of  zebra  and  hartebeest 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  African  wild  life  is  the  close  association  and  companionship 

so  often  seen  between  two  totally  different  species  of  game 

Front  photographs  by  Kermit  Roosei<elt 


34 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


or  with  herds  of  zebra,  hartebeest,  or  gazelle;  for  one  of 
the  interesting  features  of  African  wild  life  is  the  close  asso- 
ciation and  companionship  so  often  seen  between  totally 
different  species  of  game.  Wildebeest  are  as  savage  as  they 
are  suspicious;  when  wounded  they  do  not  hesitate  to  charge 
a  man  who  comes  close,  although  of  course  neither  they  nor 


Head  of  the  wildebeest  bull  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  ihoiograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


any  other  antelopes  can  be  called  dangerous  when  in  a  wild 
state,  any  more  than  moose  or  other  deer  can  be  called  dan- 
gerous; when  tame,  however,  wildebeest  are  very  dangerous 
indeed,  more  so  than  an  ordinary  domestic  bull.  The  wild, 
queer-looking  creatures  prance  and  rolick  and  cut  strange 
capers  when  a  herd  first  makes  up  its  mind  to  flee  from  a 
stranger's  approach;  and  even  a  solitary  bull  will  sometimes 
plunge  and  buck  as  it  starts  to  gallop  off;  while  a  couple 


Mr.  Roosevelt  in  Africa  in  his  hunting  costume 
From,  a  photograph,  by  Edmund  Heiley 


36  .\FRICAN   G.\ME  TRAILS 

of  bulls,  when  the  herd  is  frightened,  may  relieve  their  feel- 
ings by  a  moment's  furious  battle,  occasionally  dropping  to 
their  knees  before  closing.  At  this  time,  the  end  of  April, 
there  were  little  calves  with  the  herds  of  cows;  but  in  many 
places  in  equatorial  Africa  the  various  species  of  antelopes 
seem  to  have  no  settled  rutting  time  or  breeding  time;  at 
least  we  saw  calves  of  all  ages. 

Our  hunt  after  wildebeest  this  afternoon  was  successful; 
but  though  by  velt  law  each  animal  was  mine,  because  I 
hit  it  first,  yet  in  reality  the  credit  was  communistic,  so  to 
speak,  and  my  share  was  properly  less  than  that  of  others. 
I  first  tried  to  get  up  to  a  solitary  old  bull,  and  after  a  good 
deal  of  manoeuvring,  and  by  taking  advantage  of  a  second 
rain  squall,  I  got  a  standing  shot  at  him  at  four  hundred 
yards,  and  hit  him,  but  too  far  back.  Although  keeping 
a  good  distance  away,  he  tacked  and  veered  so,  as  he  ran, 
that  by  much  running  myself  I  got  various  other  shots  at 
him,  at  very  long  range,  but  missed  them  all,  and  he  finally 
galloped  over  a  distant  ridge,  his  long  tail  switching,  seem- 
ingly not  much  the  worse.  We  followed  on  horseback; 
for  I  hate  to  let  any  wounded  thing  escape  to  suffer.  But 
meanwhile  he  had  run  into  view  of  Kermit;  and  Kermit — 
who  is  of  an  age  and  build  which  better  fit  him  for  suc- 
cessful breakneck  galloping  over  unknown  country  dotted 
with  holes  and  bits  of  rotten  ground — took  up  the  chase 
with  enthusiasm.  Yet  it  was  sunset,  after  a  run  of  six  or 
eight  miles,  when  he  finally  ran  into  and  killed  the  tough  old 
bull,  which  had  turned  to  bay,  snorting  and  tossing  its  horns. 

Meanwhile  I  managed  to  get  within  three  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  of  a  herd,  and  picked  out  a  large  cow  which 
was  unaccompanied  by  a  calf.  Again  my  bullet  went  too 
far  back;  and  I  could  not  hit  the  animal  at  that  distance 
as  it  ran.  But  after  going  half  a  mile  it  lay  down,  and 
would  have  been  secured  without  difficulty  if  a  wretched 
dog  had  not  run  forward  and  put  it  up;  my  horse  was  a 
long. way  back,  but  Pease,  who  had  been  looking  on  at  a 
distance,  was  mounted,  and  sped  after  it.     By  the  time  I 


THROUGH   THE   PLEISTOCENE  37 

had  reached  my  horse  Pease  was  out  of  sight;  but  riding 
hard  for  some  miles  I  overtook  him,  just  before  the  sun 
went  down,  standing  by  the  cow  which  he  had  ridden  down 
and  slain.  It  was  long  after  nightfall  before  we  reached 
camp,  ready  for  a  hot  bath  and  a  good  supper.  As  always 
thereafter  with  anything  we  shot,  we  used  the  meat  for 
food  and  preserved  the  skins  for  the  National  Museum. 
Both  the  cow  and  the  bull  were  fat  and  in  fine  condition; 
but  they  were  covered  with  ticks,  especially  wherever  the 
skin  was  bare.  Around  the  eyes  the  loathsome  creatures 
swarmed  so  as  to  make  complete  rims,  like  spectacles; 
and  in  the  armpits  and  the  groin  they  were  massed  so  that 
they  looked  like  barnacles  on  an  old  boat.  It  is  astonishing 
that  the  game  should  mind  them  so  little;  the  wildebeest 
evidently  dreaded  far  more  the  biting  flies  which  hung 
around  them;  and  the  maggots  of  the  bot-flies  in  their 
nostrils  must  have  been  a  sore  torment.  Nature  is  mer- 
ciless indeed. 

The  next  day  we  rode  some  sixteen  miles  to  the  beautiful 
hills  of  Kitanga,  and  for  over  a  fortnight  were  either  Pease's 
guests  at  his  farm — ranch,  as  we  should  call  it  in  the  West 
— or  were  on  safari  under  his  guidance. 


CHAPTER   II 

ON   AN    EAST   AFRICAN   RANCH 

The  house  at  which  we  were  staying  stood  on  the  beau- 
tiful Kitanga  hills.  They  were  so  named  after  an  English- 
man, to  whom  the  natives  had  given  the  name  of  Kitanga; 
some  years  ago,  as  we  were  told,  he  had  been  killed  by  a 
lion  near  where  the  ranch  house  now  stood;  and  we  were 
shown  his  grave  in  the  little  Machakos  graveyard.  The 
house  was  one  story  high,  clean  and  comfortable,  with  a 
veranda  running  round  three  sides;  and  on  the  veranda 
were  lion  skins  and  the  skull  of  a  rhinoceros.  From  the 
house  we  looked  over  hills  and  wide  lonely  plains;  the 
green  valley  below,  with  its  flat-topped  acacias,  was  very 
lovely;  and  in  the  evening  we  could  see,  scores  of  miles 
away,  the  snowy  summit  of  mighty  Kilimanjaro  turn 
crimson  in  the  setting  sun.  The  twilights  were  not  long; 
and  when  night  fell,  stars  new  to  northern  eyes  flashed 
glorious  in  the  sky.  Above  the  horizon  hung  the  Southern 
Cross,  and  directly  opposite  in  the  heavens  was  our  old 
familiar  friend  the  Wain,  the  Great  Bear,  upside  down  and 
pointing  to  a  North  Star  so  low  behind  a  hill  that  we  could 
not  see  it.  It  is  a  dry  country,  and  we  saw  it  in  the  second 
year  of  a  drought;  yet  I  believe  it  to  be  a  country  of  high 
promise  for  settlers  of  white  race.  In  many  ways  it  reminds 
one  rather  curiously  of  the  great  plains  of  the  West,  where 
they  slope  upward  to  the  foot-hills  of  the  Rockies.  It  is  a 
white  man's  country.  Although  under  the  equator,  the 
altitude  is  so  high  that  the  nights  are  cool,  and  the  re- 
gion as  a  whole  is  very  healthy.  I  saw  many  children,  of 
the  Boer  immigrants,  of  English  settlers,  even  of  American 
missionaries,  and  they  looked  sound  and  well.  Of  course, 
there  was  no  real  identity  in  any  feature;  but  again  and 
again  the  landscape  struck  me  by  its  general  likeness  to  the 

38 


ON  AN   EAST   AFRICAN   RANCH 


39 


cattle  country  I  knew  so  well.  As  my  horse  shuffled  forward, 
under  the  bright,  hot  sunlight,  across  the  endless  flats  or 
gently  rolling  slopes  of  brown  and  withered  grass,  I  might 
have  been  on  the  plains  anywhere,  from  Texas  to  Montana; 
the  hills  were  like  our  Western  buttes;    the  half-dry  water- 


sir  Alfred,  Lady,  and  Miss  Pease,  on  ranch  steps  with  rhino  and  lion 

skulls  and  lion  skins 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

courses  were  fringed  with  trees,  just  as  if  they  had  been 
the  Sandy,  or  the  Dry,  or  the  Beaver,  or  the  Cottonwood, 
or  any  of  the  multitude  of  creeks  that  repeat  these  and 
similar  names,  again  and  again,  from  the  Panhandle  to  the 
Saskatchewan.  Moreover  a  Westerner,  far  better  than  an 
Easterner,  could  see  the  possibilities  of  the  country.  There 
should  be  storage  reservoirs  in  the  hills  and  along  the  rivers 


40  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

— in  my  judgment  built  by  the  government,  and  paid  for 
by  the  water-users  in  the  shape  of  water-rents — and  irriga- 
tion ditches;  with  the  water  stored  and  used  there  would 
be  an  excellent  opening  for  small  farmers,  for  the  settlers, 
the  actual  home-makers,  who,  above  all  others,  should  be 
encouraged  to  come  into  a  white  man's  country  like  this  of 
the  highlands  of  East  Africa.  Even  as  it  is,  many  settlers 
do  well;  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  right  under  the  equator 
the  conditions  are  such  that  wheat,  potatoes,  strawberries, 
apples,  all  flourish.  No  new  country  is  a  place  for  weak- 
lings; but  the  right  kind  of  man,  the  settler  who  makes  a 
success  in  similar  parts  of  our  own  West,  can  do  well  in 
East  Africa;  while  a  man  with  money  can  undoubtedly  do 
very  well  indeed;  and  incidentally  both  men  will  be  lead- 
ing their  lives  under  conditions  peculiarly  attractive  to  a 
certain  kind  of  spirit.  It  means  hard  work,  of  course; 
but  success  generally  does  imply  hard  work. 

The  plains  were  generally  covered  only  with  the  thick 
grass  on  which  the  great  herds  of  game  fed;  here  and  there 
small  thorn-trees  grew  upon  them,  but  usually  so  small 
and  scattered  as  to  give  no  shelter  or  cover.  By  the  occa- 
sional watercourses  the  trees  grew  more  thickly,  and  also 
on  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys  between.  Most  of  the  trees 
were  mimosas,  or  of  similar  kind,  usually  thorny;  but  there 
were  giant  cactus-like  euphorbias,  shaped  like  candela- 
bra, and  named  accordingly;  and  on  the  higher  hills  fig- 
trees,  wild  olives,  and  many  others  whose  names  I  do  not 
know,  but  some  of  which  were  stately  and  beautiful.  Many 
of  the  mimosas  were  in  bloom,  and  covered  with  sweet- 
smelling  yellow  blossoms.  There  were  many  flowers.  On 
the  dry  plains  there  were  bushes  of  the  color  and  size  of 
our  own  sage-brush,  covered  with  flowers  like  morning- 
glories.  There  were  also  wild  sweet-peas,  on  which  the 
ostriches  fed;  as  they  did  on  another  plant  with  a  lilac 
flower  of  a  faint  heliotrope  fragrance.  Among  the  hills 
there  were  masses  of  singularly  fragrant  flowers  like  pink 
jessamines,  growing  on  bushes  sometimes  fifteen  feet  high 


ON   AN   EAST   AIRICAX    RAN(  II  41 

or  over.  There  were  white  flowers  that  snich  hkc  narcissus, 
blue  flowers,  red  hh'es,  orange  tiger-hhes,  and  many  others 
of  many  kinds  and  colors,  while  here  and  there  in  the  pools 
of  the  rare  rivers  grew  the  sweet-scented  purple  lotus-lily. 

There  was  an  infinite  variety  of  birds,  small  and  large, 
dull-colored  and  of  the  most  brilliant  plumage.  For  the 
most  part  they  either  had  no  names  at  all  or  names  that 
meant  nothing  to  us.  There  were  glossy  starlings  of  many 
kinds;  and  scores' of  species  of  weaver  finches,  some  brill- 
iantly colored,  others  remarkable  because  of  the  elaborate 
nests  they  built  by  communities  among  the  trees.  There 
were  many  kinds  of  shrikes,  some  of  them  big,  parti-colored 
birds,  almost  like  magpies,  and  with  a  kestrel-like  habit  of 
hovering  in  the  air  over  one  spot;  others  very  small  and 
prettily  colored.  There  was  a  little  red-billed  finch  with  its 
outer  tail  feathers  several  times  the  length  of  its  head  and 
body.  There  was  a  little  emerald  cuckoo,  and  a  tiny  thing, 
a  barbet,  that  looked  exactly  like  a  kingfisher  four  inches 
long.  Eared  owls  flew  up  from  the  reeds  and  grass.  There 
were  big,  restless,  wonderfully  colored  plantain-eaters  in 
the  woods;  and  hornbills,  with  strange  swollen  beaks.  A 
true  lark,  colored  like  our  meadow-lark  (to  which  it  is  in 
no  way  related)  sang  from  bushes;  but  the  clapper-lark 
made  its  curious  clapping  sounds  (apparently  with  its  wings 
like  a  ruflfed  grouse)  while  it  zigzagged  in  the  air.  Little 
pipits  sang  overhead  like  our  Missouri  skylarks.  There 
were  night-jars;  and  doves  of  various  kinds,  one  of  which 
uttered  a  series  of  notes  slightly  resembling  the  call  of  our 
whippoorwill  or  chuckwills  widow.  The  beautiful  little  sun- 
birds  were  the  most  gorgeous  of  all.  Then  there  were  bus- 
tards, great  and  small,  and  snake-eating  secretary  birds, 
on  the  plains;  and  francollns,  and  African  spurfowl  with 
brilliant  naked  throats,  and  sand  grouse  that  flew  In  packs 
uttering  guttural  notes.  The  wealth  of  bird  life  was  be- 
wildering. There  was  not  much  bird  music,  judged  by 
the  standards  of  a  temperate  climate;  but  the  bulbuls,  and 
one  or  two  warblers,   sang  very  sweetly.     The  naturalists 


42  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

caught  shrews  and  mice  in  their  traps;  mole  rats  with  vel- 
vety fur,  which  burrowed  like  our  pocket  gophers;  rats 
that  lived  in  holes  like  those  of  our  kangaroo  rat;  and  one 
mouse  that  was  striped  like  our  striped  gopher.  There  were 
conies  among  the  rocks  on  the  hills;  they  looked  like  squat, 
heavy  woodchucks,  but  their  teeth  were  somewhat  like 
those  of  a  wee  rhinoceros,  and  they  had  little  hoof-like  nails 
instead  of  claws.  There  were  civets  and  wild-cats  and 
things  like  a  small  mongoose.  But  the  most  interesting 
mammal  we  saw  was  a  brilliantly  colored  yellow  and  blue, 
or  yellow  and  slate,  bat,  which  we  put  up  one  day  while 
beating  through  a  ravine.  It  had  been  hanging  from  a 
mimosa  twig,  and  it  flew  well  in  the  strong  sunlight,  look- 
ing like  some  huge,  parti-colored  butterfly. 

It  was  a  settled  country,  this  in  which  we  did  our 
first  hunting,  and  for  this  reason  all  the  more  interesting. 
The  growth  and  development  of  East  and  Middle  Africa 
are  phenomena  of  such  absorbing  interest,  that  I  was  de- 
lighted at  the  chance  to  see  the  parts  where  settlement 
has  already  begun  before  plunging  into  the  absolute  wilder- 
ness. There  was  much  to  remind  one  of  conditions  in 
Montana  and  Wyoming  thirty  years  ago;  the  ranches 
planted  down  among  the  hills  and  on  the  plains  still  teem- 
ing with  game,  the  spirit  of  daring  adventure  everywhere 
visible,  the  hope  and  the  heart-breaking  disappointment,  the 
successes  and  the  failures.  But  the  problem  offered  by  the 
natives  bore  no  resemblance  to  that  once  offered  by  the 
presence  of  our  tribes  of  horse  Indians,  few  in  numbers 
and  incredibly  formidable  in  war.  The  natives  of  East 
Africa  are  numerous;  many  of  them  are  agricultural  or  pas- 
toral peoples  after  their  own  fashion;  and  even  the  bravest 
of  them,  the  warlike  Masai,  are  in  no  way  formidable  as 
our  Indians  were  formidable  when  they  went  on  the  war- 
path. The  ranch  country  I  first  visited  was  in  what  was 
once  the  domain  of  the  Wakamba,  and  in  the  greater  part 
of  it  the  tribes  still  dwell.  They  are  in  most  ways  primitive 
savages,  with  an  imperfect  and  feeble  social,  and  therefore 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Medlicott  at  the  spot  where  we  nooned  on  the  first  (unsuccessful)  day 
of  lion  hunting  in  the  Lucania  Donga 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


44  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

military,  organization;  they  live  in  small  communities  under 
their  local  chiefs;  they  file  their  teeth,  and  though  they  wear 
blankets  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  whites,  these  blankets 
are  often  cast  aside;  even  when  the  blanket  is  worn,  it  is  often 
in  such  fashion  as  merely  to  accentuate  the  otherwise  abso- 
lute nakedness  of  both  sexes.  Yet  these  savages  are  cattle- 
keepers  and  cattle-raisers,  and  the  women  do  a  good  deal  of 
simple  agricultural  work;  unfortunately,  they  are  waste- 
fully  destructive  of  the  forests.  The  chief  of  each  littlf  vil- 
lage is  recognized  as  the  official  headman  by  the  British 
official,  is  given  support,  and  is  required  to  help  the  authori- 
ties keep  peace  and  stamp  out  cattle  disease — the  two  most 
important  functions  of  government  so  far  as  the  Wakamba 
themselves  are  concerned.  All  the  tribes  have  their  herds 
of  black,  brown,  and  white  goats,  of  mottled  sheep,  and 
especially  of  small  humped  cattle.  The  cattle  form  their 
pride  and  joy.  During  the  day  each  herd  is  accompanied 
by  the  herdsmen,  and  at  night  it  is  driven  within  its  boma, 
or  circular  fence  of  thorn-bushes.  Except  for  the  milk, 
which  they  keep  in  their  foul,  smoky  calabashes,  the  natives 
really  make  no  use  of  their  cattle;  they  do  not  know  how 
to  work  them,  and  they  never  eat  them  even  in  time  of 
starvation.  When  there  is  prolonged  drought  and  conse- 
quent failure  of  crops,  the  foolish  creatures  die  by  the  hun- 
dreds when  they  might  readily  be  saved  if  they  were  willing 
to  eat  the  herds  which  they  persist  in  treating  as  ornaments 
rather  than  as  made  for  use. 

Many  of  the  natives  work  for  the  settlers,  as  cattle- 
keepers,  as  ostrich-keepers,  or,  after  a  fashion,  as  laborers. 
The  settlers  evidently  much  prefer  to  rely  upon  the  natives 
for  unskilled  labor  rather  than  see  coolies  from  Hindostan 
brought  into  the  country.  At  Sir  Alfred  Pease's  ranch,  as 
at  most  of  the  other  farms  of  the  neighborhood,  we  found 
little  Wakamba  settlements.  Untold  ages  separated  em- 
ployers and  employed;  yet  those  that  I  saw  seemed  to  get 
on  well  together.  The  Wakamba  are  as  yet  not  sufficiently 
advanced  to  warrant  their  sharing  in  the  smallest  degree  in 


ON  AN   EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH 


45 


the  common  government;  the  "just  consent  of  the  governed" 
in  their  case,  if  taken  hterally,  would  mean  idleness,  famine, 
and  endless  internecine  warfare.  They  cannot  govern  them- 
selves from  within;  therefore  they  must  be  governed  from 
without;  and  their  need  is  met  in  highest  fashion  by  firm 
and  just  control,  of  the  kind  that  on   the  whole  they  are 


Tree  with  ^\"aka^lba  beelii\'eb,  Kitangu 
Fi-om  a photograpJi.  by  Edimind  HeUe7 


now  getting.  At  Kitanga  the  natives  on  the  place  some- 
times worked  about  the  house;  and  they  took  care  of  the 
stock.  The  elders  looked  after  the  mild  little  humped  cat- 
tle— bulls,  steers,  and  cows;  and  the  children,  often  the 
merest  toddlers,  took  naturally  to  guarding  the  parties  of 
pretty  little  calves,  during  the  daytime,  when  they  were 
separated  from  their  mothers.  It  was  an  ostrich-farm,  too; 
and  in  the  morning  and  evening  we  would  meet  the  great 
birds,  as  they  went  to  their  grazing-grounds  or  returned  to 
the  ostrich  boma,  mincing  along  with  their  usual  air  of 
foolish  stateliness,   convoyed  by  two   or    three    boys,    each 


46 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


with  a  red  blanket,  a  throwing  stick,  copper  wire  round  his 
legs  and  arms,  and  perhaps  a  feather  stuck  in  his  hair. 

There  were  a  number  of  ranches  in  the  neighborhood — 
using  "neighborhood''  in  the  large  Western  sense,  for  they 
were  many  miles  apart.  The  Hills,  Clifford  and  Harold, 
were  Africanders;    they  knew  the  country,  and  were  work- 


Percival  and  his  oxen  starting  off  for  the  giraffes 
Frojn  a  pJiotograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

ing  hard  and  doing  well;  and  in  the  midst  of  their  work 
they  spared  the  time  to  do  their  full  part  in  insuring  a  suc- 
cessful hunt  to  me,  an  entire  stranger.  All  the  settlers  I 
met  treated  me  with  the  same  large  and  thoughtful  courtesy 
— and  what  fine  fellows  they  were!  And  their  wives  even 
finer.  At  Bondoni  was  Percival,  a  tall  sinewy  man,  a  fine 
rider  and  shot;  like  so  many  other  men  whom  I  met,  he 
wore  merely  a  helmet,  a  flannel  shirt,  short  breeches  or 
trunks,  and  puttees  and  boots,  leaving  the  knee  entirely 
bare.  I  shall  not  soon  forget  seeing  him  one  day,  as  he 
walked  beside  his  twelve-ox  team,  cracking  his  long  whip, 
while  in  the  big  wagon  sat  pretty  Mrs.  Percival  with  a  puppy, 
and  a  little  cheetah  cub,  which  we  had  found  and  presented 


ON   AN  EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH 


47 


to  her  and  which  she  was  taming.  They  all — Sir  Alfred, 
the  Hills,  every  one — behaved  as  if  each  was  my  host  and 
felt  it  peculiarly  incumbent  on  him  to  give  me  a  good  time; 
and  among  these  hosts  one  who  did  very  much  for  me  was 
Captain  Arthur  Slatter.  I  was  his  guest  at  Kilimakiu, 
where  he  was  running  an  ostrich-farm;  he  had  lost  his 
right  hand,  yet  he  was  an 
exceedingly  good  game 
shot  both  with  his  light 
and  his  heavy  rifles. 

At  Kitanga,  Sir  Al- 
fred's place,  two  Boers 
were  working,  Messrs. 
Prinsloo  and  Klopper. 
We  forgathered,  of 
course,  as  I  too  was  of 
Dutch  ancestry;  they 
were  strong,  upstanding 
men,  good  mechanics, 
good  masons,  and  Prins- 
loo spoke  English  well.  I 
afterward  stopped  at  the 
farm  of  Klopper's  father, 
and  at  the  farm  of  an- 
other Boer  named  Loijs; 
and  I  met  other  Boers  while  out  hunting— Erasmus,  Botha, 
Joubert,  Meyer.  They  were  descendants  of  the  Voortrek- 
kers  with  the  same  names  who  led  the  hard-fighting  farmers 
northward  from  the  Cape  seventy  years  ago;  and  were 
kinsfolk  of  the  men  who  since  then  have  made  these  names 
honorably  known  throughout  the  world.  There  must  of 
course  be  many  Boers  who  have  gone  backward  under  the 
stress  of  a  hard  and  semi-savage  life;  just  as  in  our  com- 
munities of  the  frontier,  the  backwoods,  and  the  lonely 
mountains,  there  are  shiftless  ''poor  whites"  and  "mean 
whites,"  mingled  with  the  sturdy  men  and  women  who  have 
laid  deep  the  foundations  of  our  national  greatness.     But 


m 

n 

p^^^^/ 

i^ --"^  ■■.:^m>>^ 

'^wS                .  Wl 

^^r  - 

mf 

^^I^^B^ 

1 

•  1 

Sir  Alfred  with  cheetah  cub,  Eotha 
Frojii  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 


48  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

personally  I  happened  not  to  come  across  these  shiftless 
"mean  white"  Boers.  Those  that  I  met,  both  men  and 
women,  were  of  as  good  a  type  as  any  one  could  wish  for 
in  his  own  countrymen  or  could  admire  in  another  nation- 
ality. They  fulfilled  the  three  prime  requisites  for  any 
race:  they  worked  hard,  they  could  fight  hard  at  need,  and 
they  had  plenty  of  children.  These  are  the  three  essential 
qualities  in  any  and  every  nation;  they  are  by  no  means 
all-sufficient  in  themselves,  and  there  is  need  that  many 
others  should  be  added  to  them;  but  the  lack  of  any  one  of 
them  is  fatal,  and  cannot  be  made  good  by  the  presence 
of  any  other  set  of  attributes. 

It  was  pleasant  to  see  the  good  terms  on  which  Boer  and 
Briton  met.  Many  of  the  English  settlers  whose  guest  I 
was,  or  with  whom  I  hunted — the  Hills,  Captain  Slatter, 
Heatley,  Judd — had  fought  through  the  South  African  war; 
and  so  had  all  the  Boers  I  met.  The  latter  had  been  for 
the  most  part  members  of  various  particularly  hard-fighting 
commandos;  when  the  war  closed  they  felt  very  bitterly, 
and  wished  to  avoid  living  under  the  British  flag.  Some 
moved  West  and  some  East;  those  I  met  were  among  the 
many  hundreds,  indeed  thousands,  who  travelled  northward 
— a  few  overland,  most  of  them  by  water — to  German  East 
Africa.  But  in  the  part  in  which  they  happened  to  settle 
they  were  decimated  by  fever,  and  their  stock  perished  of 
cattle  sickness;  and  most  of  them  had  again  moved  north- 
ward, and  once  more  found  themselves  under  the  British 
flag.  They  were  being  treated  precisely  on  an  equality  with 
the  British  settlers;  and  every  well-wisher  to  his  kind,  and 
above  all  every  well-wisher  to  Africa,  must  hope  that  the 
men  who  in  South  Africa  fought  so  valiantly  against  one 
another,  each  for  the  right  as  he  saw  it,  will  speedily  grow 
into  a  companionship  of  mutual  respect,  regard,  and  con- 
sideration such  as  that  which,  for  our  inestimable  good  fort- 
une, now  knits  closely  together  in  our  own  land  the  men 
who  wore  the  blue  and  the  men  who  wore  the  gray  and 
their  descendants.     There  could  be  no  better  and  manlier 


ON  AN  EAST   AFRICAN  RANCH 


49 


people  than  those,  both  EngHsh  and  Dutch,  who  are  at 
this  moment  engaged  in  tlie  great  and  difficult  task  of  add- 
ing East  Africa  to  the  domain  of  civilization;  their  work 
is  bound  to  be  hard  enough  anyhow;  and  it  would  be  a 
lamentable  calamity  to  render  it  more  difficult  by  keeping 
alive  a  bitterness  which  has  lost  all  point  and  justification, 
or  by  failing  to  recognize 
the  fundamental  virtues, 
the  fundamental  charac- 
teristics, in  which  the 
men  of  the  two  stocks 
are  in  reality  so  much 
alike. 

Messrs.  Klopper  and 
Loijs,  whose  farms  I  vis- 
ited, were  doing  well;  the 
latter,  with  three  of  his 
sons,  took  me  out  with 
pride  to  show  me  the 
dam  which  they  had  built 
across  a  dry  watercourse, 
so  as  to  make  a  storage 
reservoir  when  the  rains 
came.  The  houses  were 
of  stone,  and  clean  and 
comfortable;  the  floors 
were  covered  with  the 
skins  of  buck  and  zebra; 
the  chairs  were  home-made,  as  was  most  of  the  other 
furniture;  the  "rust  bunks,"  or  couches,  strongly  and  grace- 
fully shaped,  and  filled  with  plaited  raw  hide,  were  so 
attractive  that  I  ordered  one  to  take  home.  There  were 
neatly  kept  little  flower-gardens,  suffering  much  from  the 
drought;  there  were  ovens  and  out-buildings;  cattle-sheds 
for  the  humped  oxen  and  the  herds  of  pretty  cows  and 
calves;  the  biltong  was  drying  in  smoke-houses;  there 
were  patches  of  ground  in  cultivation,  for  corn  and  veg- 


Klopper  and  Prinsloo,  the  two  Boers  working 

on  Sir  Alfred's  Ranch 

From  a  photograph  by  KcrDiit  Roosevelt 


50  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

etables;  and  the  wild  velt  came  up  to  the  door-sills,  and 
the  wild  game  grazed  quietly  on  all  sides  within  sight  of 
the  houses.  It  was  a  very  good  kind  of  pioneer  life;  and 
there  could  be  no  better  pioneer  settlers  than  Boers  such 
as  I  saw. 

The  older  men  wore  full  beards,  and  were  spare  and 
sinewy.  The  young  men  were  generally  smooth-faced  or 
mustached,  strongly  built,  and  rather  shy.  The  elder 
women  were  stout,  cordial,  motherly  housewives;  the 
younger  were  often  really  pretty.  At  their  houses  I  was 
received  with  hearty  hospitality,  and  given  coffee  or  fresh 
milk,  while  we  conversed  through  the  medium  of  the  sons 
or  daughters  who  knew  a  little  English.  They  all  knew 
that  I  was  of  Dutch  origin,  and  were  much  interested  when 
I  repeated  to  them  the  only  Dutch  I  knew,  a  nursery  song 
which,  as  I  told  them,  had  been  handed  down  to  me  by  my 
own  forefathers,  and  which  in  return  I  had  repeated,  so 
many,  many  times,  to  my  children  when  they  were  little. 
It  runs  as  follows,  by  the  way;  but  I  have  no  idea  how  the 
words  are  spelled,  as  I  have  no  written  copy;  it  is  supposed 
to  be  sung  by  the  father,  who  holds  the  little  boy  or  little 
girl  on  his  knee,  and  tosses  him  or  her  up  in  the  air  when 
he  comes  to  the  last  line: 

Trippa,  troppa,  tronjes, 

De  varken's  in  de  boonjes, 

De  koejes  in  de  klaver, 

De  paardeen  in  de  haver, 

De  eenjes  in  de  water-plass! 

So  groot  myn  kleine  (here  insert  the 

little  boy's  or  little  girl's  name)  wass! 

My  pronunciation  caused  trouble  at  first;  but  I  think 
they  understood  me  the  more  readily  because  doubtless 
their  own  usual  tongue  was  in  some  sort  a  dialect;  and 
some  of  them  already  knew  the  song,  while  they  were  all 
pleased  and  amused  at  my  remembering  and  repeating 
it;  and  we  were  speedily  on  a  most  friendly  footing. 


ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH 


51 


The  essential  identity  of  interest  between  the  Boer 
and  British  settlers  was  shown  by  their  attitude  toward 
the  district  commissioner,   Mr.   Humphery,   who  was   just 


Heads  of  first  two  big  lions  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  ^Jiotograph  by  Kerinii  Rooievelt 


leaving  for  his  biennial  holiday,  and  who  dined  with  us 
in  our  tent  on  his  way  out.  From  both  Boer  farmer  and 
English  settler — and  from  the  American  missionaries  also — 


52  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

I  heard  praise  of  Humphery,  as  a  strong  man,  not  in  the 
least  afraid  of  either  settler  or  native,  but  bound  to  do 
justice  to  both,  and,  what  was  quite  as  important,  sympa- 
thizing with  the  settlers  and  knowing  and  understanding 
their  needs.  A  new  country  in  which  white  pioneer  settlers 
are  struggling  with  the  iron  difficulties  and  hardships  of 
frontier  life  is  above  all  others  that  in  which  the  officials 
should  be  men  having  both  knowledge  and  sympathy  with 
the  other  men  over  whom  they  are  placed  and  for  whom 
they  should  work. 

My  host  and  hostess,  Sir  Alfred  and  Lady  Pease,  were 
on  the  best  terms  with  all  their  neighbors,  and  their  friendly 
interest  was  returned;  now  it  was  the  wife  of  a  Boer  farmer 
who  sent  over  a  basket  of  flowers,  now  came  a  box  of 
apples  from  an  English  settler  on  the  hills;  now  Prinsloo 
the  Boer  stopped  to  dinner;  now  the  McMillans — Ameri- 
can friends,  of  whose  farm  and  my  stay  thereon  I  shall 
speak  later — rode  over  from  their  house  on  the  Mua  Hills, 
with  their  guest,  Selous,  to  take  lunch.  This,  by  the  way, 
was  after  I  had  shot  my  first  lions,  and  I  was  much  pleased 
to  be  able  to  show  Selous  the  trophies. 

My  gentle-voiced  hostess  and  her  daughter  had  seen 
many  strange  lands  and  strange  happenings;  as  was  nat- 
ural with  a  husband  and  father  of  such  adventure-loving 
nature.  They  took  a  keen  interest,  untinged  by  the  slightest 
nervousness,  in  every  kind  of  wild  creature  from  lions  and 
leopards  down.  The  game  was  in  sight  from  the  veranda 
of  the  house  almost  every  hour  of  the  day.  Early  one  morn- 
ing, in  the  mist,  three  hartebeests  came  right  up  to  the 
wire  fence,  two-score  yards  from  the  house  itself;  and  the 
black-and-white  striped  zebra,  and  ruddy  hartebeest,  grazed 
or  rested  through  the  long  afternoons  in  plain  view,  on  the 
hill-sides  opposite. 

It  is  hard  for  one  who  has  not  himself  seen  it  to  realize 
the  immense  quantities  of  game  to  be  found  on  the  Kapiti 
Plains  and  Athi  Plains  and  the  hills  that  bound  them. 
The  common  game  of  the  plains,  the  animals  of  which  I 


ON   AN   EAST   AFRICAN   RANCH 


53 


saw  most  while  at  Kitanga  and  in  the  neighborhood,  were 
the  zebra,  wildebeest,  hartebeest.  Grant's  gazelle,  and 
''tommies"  or  Thomson's  gazelle;  the  zebra,  and  the 
hartebeest,  usually  known  by  the  Swahili  name  of  kon- 
goni,  being  by  far  the  most  plentiful.  Then  there  were 
impalla,  mountain  reedbuck,  duiker,  steinbuck,  and  dimin- 


Some  of  the  naturalists'  porters  and  skinners 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Aldcn  Loring 

utive  dikdik.  As  we  travelled  and  hunted  we  were  hardly 
ever  out  of  sight  of  game;  and  on  Pease's  farm  itself  there 
were  many  thousand  head;  and  so  there  were  on  Slatter's. 
If  wealthy  men  who  desire  sport  of  the  most  varied  and 
interesting  kind  would  purchase  farms  like  these  they  could 
get,  for  much  less  money,  many  times  the  interest  and 
enjoyment  a  deer-forest  or  grouse-moor  can  afford. 

The  wildebeest  or  gnu  were  the  shyest  and  least  plenti- 
ful, but  in  some  ways  the  most  interesting,  because  of  the 
queer  streak  of  ferocious  eccentricity  evident  in  all  their 
actions.  They  were  of  all  the  animals  those  that  were  most 
exclusively  dwellers  in  the  open,  where  there  was  neither 


54  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

hill  nor  bush.  Their  size  and  their  dark  bluish  hides,  some- 
times showing  white  in  the  sunHght,  but  more  often  black, 
rendered  them  more  easily  seen  than  any  of  their  com- 
panions. But  hardly  any  plains  animal  of  any  size  makes 
any  effort  to  escape  its  enemies  by  eluding  their  observa- 
tion. Very  much  of  what  is  commonly  said  about  ''pro- 
tective coloration"  has  no  basis  whatever  in  fact.  Black 
and  white  are  normally  the  most  conspicuous  colors  in 
nature  (and  yet  are  borne  by  numerous  creatures  who 
have  succeeded  well  in  the  struggle  for  life);  but  almost 
any  tint,  or  combination  of  tints,  among  the  grays^  browns 
and  duns,  harmonizes  fairly  well  with  at  least  some  sur- 
roundings, in  most  landscapes;  and  in  but  a  few  instances 
among  the  larger  mammals,  and  in  almost  none  among 
those  frequenting  the  open  plains,  is  there  the  slightest 
reason  for  supposing  that  the  creature  gains  any  benefit 
whatever  from  what  is  loosely  called  its  "protective  colora- 
tion." Giraffes,  leopards,  and  zebras,  for  instance,  have 
actually  been  held  up  as  instances  of  creatures  that  are 
"protectingly"  colored  and  are  benefited  thereby.  The 
girafl^e  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  objects  in  nature, 
and  never  makes  the  slightest  efi^ort  to  hide;  near  by  its 
mottled  hide  is  very  noticeable,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
under  any  ordinary  circumstances  any  possible  foe  trust- 
ing to  eyesight  would  discover  the  giraffe  so  far  away  that 
its  coloring  would  seem  uniform,  that  is,  would  because  of 
the  distance  be  indistinguishable  from  a  general  tint  which 
really  might  have  a  slight  protective  value.  In  other  words, 
while  it  is  possible  that  the  giraffe's  beautifully  waved  color- 
ing may  under  certain  circumstances,  and  in  an  infinitesi- 
mally  small  number  of  cases,  put  it  at  a  slight  disadvantage 
in  the  struggle  for  life,  in  the  enormous  majority  of  cases — 
a  majority  so  great  as  to  make  the  remaining  cases  negligi- 
ble— it  has  no  efiect  whatever,  one  way  or  the  other;  and 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  under  no  conditions  is  its  coloring  of 
the  slightest  value  to  it  as  affording  it  "protection"  from 
foes  trusting  to  their  eyesight.     So  it  is  with  the  leopard; 


ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH  55 

it  is  undoubtedly  much  less  conspicuous  than  if  it  were 
black — and  yet  the  black  leopards,  the  melanistic  individ- 
uals, thrive  as  well  as  their  spotted  brothers;  while  on  the 
whole  it  is  probably  slightly  more  conspicuous  than  if  it  were 
nearly  unicolor^  like  the  American  cougar.  As  compared  with 
the  cougar's  tawny  hide  the  leopard's  coloration  represents  a 
very  slight  disadvantage,  and  not  an  advantage,  to  the  beast; 
but  its  life  is  led  under  conditions  which  make  either  the 
advantage  or  the  disadvantage  so  slight  as  to  be  negligible; 
its  peculiar  coloration  is  probably  in  actual  fact  of  hardly 
the  slightest  service  to  it  from  the  "protective"  stand-point, 
whether  as  regards  escaping  from  its  enemies  or  approach- 
ing its  prey.  It  has  extraordinary  facility  in  hiding,  it  is 
a  master  of  the  art  of  stealthy  approach;  but  it  is  normally 
nocturnal  and  by  night  the  color  of  its  hide  is  of  no  conse- 
quence whatever;  while  by  day,  as  I  have  already  said, 
its  varied  coloration  renders  it  slightly  more  easy  to  detect 
than  is  the  case  with  the  cougar. 

All  of  this  applies  with  peculiar  force  to  the  zebra, 
which  it  has  also  been  somewhat  the  fashion  of  recent 
years  to  hold  up  as  an  example  of  "protective  coloration." 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  zebra's  coloration  is  not  protective 
at  all;  on  the  contrary  it  is  exceedingly  conspicuous,  and 
under  the  actual  conditions  of  the  zebra's  life  probably 
never  hides  it  from  its  foes;  the  instances  to  the  contrary 
being  due  to  conditions  so  exceptional  that  they  may  be 
disregarded.  If  any  man  seriously  regards  the  zebra's 
coloration  as  "protective,"  let  him  try  the  experiment  of 
wearing  a  hunting  suit  of  the  zebra  pattern;  he  will  speed- 
ily be  undeceived.  The  zebra  is  peculiarly  a  beast  of  the 
open  plains,  and  makes  no  effort  ever  to  hide  from  the 
observation  of  its  foes.  It  is  occasionally  found  in  open 
forest;  and  may  there  now  and  then  escape  observation 
simply  as  any  animal  of  any  color — a  dun  hartebeest  or  a 
nearly  black  bushbuck — may  escape  observation.  At  a 
distance  of  over  a  few  hundred  yards  the  zebra's  coloration 
ceases  to  be  conspicuous  simply  because  the  distance  has 


56  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

caused  it  to  lose  all  its  distinctive  character — that  is,  all 
the  quality  which  could  possibly  make  it  protective.  Near 
by  it  is  always  very  conspicuous,  and  if  the  conditions  are 
such  that  any  animal  can  be  seen  at  all,  a  zebra  will  catch 
the  eye  much  more  quickly  than  a  Grant's  gazelle,  for  in- 
stance. These  gazelles,  by  the  way,  although  much  less 
conspicuously  colored  than  the  zebra,  bear  when  young, 
and  the  females  even  when  adult,  the  dark  side  stripe 
which  characterizes  all  sexes  and  ages  of  the  smaller  gazelle, 
the  tommy;  it  is  a  very  conspicuous  marking,  quite 
inexplicable  on  any  theory  of  protective  coloration.  The 
truth  is  that  no  game  of  the  plains  is  helped  in  any  way  by 
its  coloration  in  evading  its  foes  and  none  seeks  to  escape 
the  vision  of  its  foes.  The  larger  game  animals  of  the 
plains  are  always  walking  and  standing  in  conspicuous 
places,  and  never  seek  to  hide  or  take  advantage  of  cover; 
while,  on  the  contrary,  the  little  grass  and  bush  antelopes, 
like  the  duiker  and  steinbuck,  trust  very  much  to  their 
power  of  hiding,  and  endeavor  to  escape  the  sight  of  their 
foes  by  lying  absolutely  still,  in  the  hope  of  not  being  made 
out  against  their  background.  On  the  plains  one  sees  the 
wildebeest  farthest  off  and  with  most  ease;  the  zebra  and 
hartebeest  next;    the  gazelles  last. 

The  wildebeest  are  very  wary.  While  the  hunter  is 
still  a  long  way  off  the  animal  will  stop  grazing  and  stand 
with  head  raised,  the  heavy  shoulders  and  short  neck  mak- 
ing it  unmistakable.  Then,  when  it  makes  up  its  mind  to 
allow  no  closer  approach,  it  brandishes  its  long  tail,  springs 
and  plunges,  runs  once  or  twice  in  semicircles,  and  is  off, 
the  head  held  much  lower  than  the  shoulders,  the  tail  still 
lashing;  and  now  and  then  a  bull  may  toss  up  the  dust 
with  its  horns.  The  herds  of  cows  and  calves  usually  con- 
tain one  or  two  or  more  bulls;  and  in  addition,  dotted  here 
and  there  over  the  plain,  are  single  bulls  or  small  parties  of 
bulls,  usually  past  their  prime  or  not  yet  full  grown.  These 
bulls  are  often  found  in  the  company  of  hartebeests  or 
zebras;    and  stray  zebras  and  hartebeests  are  often  found 


ON   AN   P:AST   AFRICAN    11AN(  II  57 

with  the  wildebeest  herds.  The  stomachs  of  those  I  opened 
contained  nothing  but  grass;  they  are  grazers,  not  browsers. 
The  hartebeest  are  much  faster,  and  if  really  frightened 
speedily  leave  their  clumsy-looking  friends  behind;  but 
the  wildebeest,  as  I  have  seen  them,  are  by  far  the  most 
wary.  The  wildebeest  and  zebra  seemed  to  me  to  lie  down 
less  freely  than  the  hartebeest;  but  I  frequently  came  on 
herds  of  both  lying  down  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  Some- 
times part  of  the  herd  will  stand  drowsily  erect  and  the 
rest  lie  down.  Near  Kitanga  there  were  three  wildebeest 
which  were  usually  found  with  a  big  herd  of  hartebeest, 
and  which  regularly  every  afternoon  lay  down  for  some 
hours,  just  as  their  friends  did.  The  animal  has  a  very 
bovine  look;  and  though  called  an  antelope  it  is  quite 
as  close  kin  to  the  oxen  as  it  is  to  many  of  the  other  beasts 
also  called  antelope.  The  fact  is  that  antelope  is  not  an 
exact  term  at  all,  but  merely  means  any  hollow-horned 
ruminant  which  the  observer  happens  to  think  is  not  a 
sheep,  goat,  or  ox.  When,  with  Linnaeus,  the  first  serious 
effort  at  the  systematization  of  living  nature  began,  men 
naturally  groped  in  the  effort  to  see  correctly  and  to  ex- 
press what  they  saw.  When  they  came  to  describe  the 
hollow-horned  ruminants,  they,  of  course,  already  had 
names  at  hand  for  anything  that  looked  like  one  of  the 
domestic  creatures  with  which  they  were  familiar;  and  as 
"antelope"  was  also  already  a  name  of  general,  though 
vague,  currency  for  some  wild  creatures,  they  called  every- 
thing an  antelope  that  did  not  seem  to  come  in  one  of  the 
more  familiar  domestic  categories.  Study  has  shown  that 
sheep  and  goats  grade  into  one  another  among  the  wild 
species;  and  the  so-called  antelopes  include  forms  differing 
from  one  another  quite  as  sharply  as  any  of  them  differ 
from  their  kinsfolk  that  are  represented  in  the  farm-yard. 

Zebra  share  with  hartebeest  the  distinction  of  being 
the  most  abundant  game  animal  on  the  plains,  throughout 
the  whole  Athi  region.  The  two  creatures  are  fond  of  as- 
sociating  together,   usually    in    mixed    herds;     but    some- 


58  AFRICAN   GAMP:   TRAILS 

times  there  will  merely  be  one  or  two  individuals  of  one 
species  in  a  big  herd  of  the  other.  They  are  sometimes, 
though  less  frequently  than  the  hartebeest,  found  in  open 
bush  country;   but  they  live  in  the  open  plains  by  choice. 

I  could  not  find  out  that  they  had  fixed  times  for  rest- 
ing, feeding,  and  going  to  water.  They  and  the  harte- 
beests  formed  the  favorite  prey  of  the  numerous  lions  of 
the  neighborhood;  and  I  believe  that  the  nights,  even 
the  moonlight  nights,  were  passed  by  both  animals  under  a 
nervous  strain  of  apprehension,  ever  dreading  the  attack 
of  their  arch  enemy,  and  stampeding  from  it.  Their  stam- 
pedes cause  the  utmost  exasperation  to  the  settlers^  for 
when  in  terror  of  the  real  or  imaginary  attack  of  a  lion, 
their  mad,  heedless  rush  takes  them  through  a  wire  fence 
as  if  it  were  made  of  twine  and  pasteboard.  But  a  few 
months  before  my  arrival  a  mixed  herd  of  zebra  and  harte- 
beest,  stampeded  either  by  lions  or  wild  dogs,  rushed 
through  the  streets  of  Nairobi,  several  being  killed  by  the 
inhabitants,  and  one  of  the  victims  falling  just  outside  the 
Episcopal  church.  The  zebras  are  nearly  powerless  v^hen 
seized  by  lions;  but  they  are  bold  creatures  against  less 
formidable  foes,  trusting  in  their  hoofs  and  their  strong 
jaws;  they  will,  when  in  a  herd,  drive  ofi^  hyena  or  wild 
dogs^  and  will  turn  on  hounds,  if  the  hunter  is  not  near. 
If  the  lion  is  abroad  in  the  daytime,  they,  as  well  as  the 
other  game,  seem  to  realize  that  he  cannot  run  them  down; 
and  though  they  follow  his  movements  with  great  alertness, 
and  keep  at  a  respectful  distance,  they  show  no  panic.  Or- 
dinarily^ as  I  saw  them^  they  did  not  seem  very  shy  of  men; 
but  in  this  respect  all  the  game  displayed  the  widest  differ- 
ences, from  time  to  time,  without  any  real  cause,  that  I  could 
discern^  for  the  difference.  At  one  hour,  or  on  one  day  the 
zebra  and  hartebeest  would  flee  from  our  approach  when  half 
a  mile  off;  and  again  they  would  permit  us  to  come  within 
a  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  moving  slowly  away.  On 
two  or  three  occasions  at  lunch  herds  of  zebra  remained  for 
half  an  hour  watching  us  with  much  curiosity  not  over  a  hun- 


ON   AN   EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH  59 

dred  yards  off.  Once,  when  we  had  been  vainly  beating  for 
lions  at  the  foot  of  the  Elukania  ridge,  at  least  a  thousand 
zebras  stood,  in  herds,  on  every  side  of  us^  throughout 
lunch;  they  were  from  two  to  four  hundred  yards  distant, 
and  I  was  especially  struck  by  the  fact  that  those  which 
were  to  leeward  and  had  our  wind  were  no  more  alarmed 
than  the  others.  I  have  seen  them  water  at  dawn  and  sun- 
set, and  also  in  the  middle  of  the  day;  and  I  have  seen 
them  grazing  at  every  hour  of  the  day,  although  I  believe 
most  freely  in  the  morning  and  evening.  At  noon  and  until 
the  late  afternoon  those  I  saw  were  quite  apt  to  be  resting, 
either  standing  or  lying  down.  They  are  noisy.  Harte- 
beests  merely  snort  or  sneeze  now  and  then;  but  the  shrill, 
querulous  barking  of  the  "bonte  quaha,"  as  the  Boers  call 
the  zebra,  is  one  of  the  common  sounds  of  the  African  plains, 
both  by  day  and  night.  It  is  usually  represented  in  books  by 
the  syllables  *'qua-ha-ha";  but  of  course  our  letters  and  syl- 
lables were  not  made  to  represent,  and  can  only  in  arbitrary 
and  conventional  fashion  represent,  the  calls  of  birds  and 
mammals;  the  bark  of  the  bonte  quagga  or  common  zebra 
could  just  as  well  be  represented  by  the  syllables  **ba-wa- 
wa,"  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  can  readily  be  mistaken  for 
the  bark  of  a  shrill-voiced  dog.  After  one  of  a  herd  has 
been  killed  by  a  lion  or  a  hunter  its  companions  are  par- 
ticularly apt  to  keep  uttering  their  cry.  Zebras  are  very 
beautiful  creatures,  and  it  was  an  unending  pleasure  to 
watch  them.  I  never  molested  them  save  to  procure  speci- 
mens for  the  museums,  or  food  for  the  porters,  v/ho  like 
their  rather  rank  flesh.  They  were  covered  with  ticks 
like  the  other  game;  on  the  groin,  and  many  of  the  tender- 
est  spots,  the  odious  creatures  were  in  solid  clusters;  yet  the 
zebras  were  all  in  high  condition,  with  masses  of  oily  yellow 
fat.     One  stallion  weighed  six  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 

The  hartebeest — Coke's  hartebeest,  known  locally  by 
the  Swahili  name  of  kongoni — were  at  least  as  plentiful, 
and  almost  as  tame  as  the  zebras.  As  with  the  other  game 
of  equatorial  Africa,  we  found  the  young  of  all  ages;   there 


60  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

seems  to  be  no  especial  breeding  time,  and  no  one  period 
among  the  males  corresponding  to  the  rutting  season  among 
northern  animals.  The  hartebeests  were  usually  insepara- 
ble companions  of  the  zebra;  but  though  they  were  by  pref- 
erence beasts  of  the  bare  plain,  they  were  rather  more 
often  found  in  open  bush  than  were  their  striped  friends. 
There  are  in  the  country  numerous  ant-hills,  which  one  sees 
in  every  stage  of  development,  from  a  patch  of  bare  earth 
with  a  few  funnel-like  towers,  to  a  hillock  a  dozen  feet  high 
and  as  many  yards  in  circumference.  On  these  big  ant- 
hills one  or  two  kongoni  will  often  post  themselves  as  look- 
outs, and  are  then  almost  impossible  to  approach.  The 
bulls  sometimes  fight  hard  among  themselves,  and  although 
their  horns  are  not  very  formidable  weapons,  yet  I  knew  of 
one  case  in  which  a  bull  was  killed  in  such  a  duel,  his  chest 
being  ripped  open  by  his  adversary's  horns;  and  now  and 
then  a  bull  will  kneel  and  grind  its  face  and  horns  into  the 
dust  or  mud.  Often  a  whole  herd  will  gather  around  and 
on  an  ant-hill,  or  even  a  small  patch  of  level  ground,  and 
make  it  a  regular  stamping  ground,  treading  it  into  dust 
with  their  sharp  hoofs.  They  have  another  habit  which 
I  have  not  seen  touched  on  in  the  books.  Ordinarily  their 
droppings  are  scattered  anywhere  on  the  plain;  but  again 
and  again  I  found  where  hartebeests — and  more  rarely 
Grant's  gazelles — had  in  large  numbers  deposited  their 
droppings  for  some  time  in  one  spot.  Hartebeest  are 
homely  creatures,  with  long  faces,  high  withers,  and  show- 
ing when  first  in  motion  a  rather  ungainly  gait,  but  they 
are  among  the  swiftest  and  most  enduring  of  antelope,  and 
when  at  speed  their  action  is  easy  and  regular.  When 
pursued  by  a  dog  they  will  often  play  before  him — just  as 
a  tommy  will — taking  great  leaps,  with  all  four  legs  in- 
clined backward,  evidently  in  a  spirit  of  fun  and  derision. 
In  the  stomachs  of  those  I  killed,  as  in  those  of  the  zebras, 
I  found  only  grass  and  a  few  ground  plants;  even  in  the 
open  bush  or  thinly  wooded  country  they  seemed  to  graze 
and   not  browse.     One   fat  and   heavy  bull  weighed   340 


ON  AN   EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH 


61 


pounds;    a   very   old   bull,   with   horns   much  worn   down 
299;    and  a  cow  in  high  condition  315. 

The  Grant's  gazelle  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  these 
plains  creatures;  it  is  about  the  size  of  a  big  white-tail  deer; 
one  heavy  buck  which  I  shot,  although  with  poor  horns, 
v/eighed  171  pounds.  The  finest  among  the  old  bucks  have 
beautiful  lyre-shaped  horns,  over  two  feet  long,  and  their 


Vulture  raven  or  white-necked  raven 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Aldeii  Loring 


proud,  graceful  carriage  and  lightness  of  movement  render 
them  a  delight  to  the  eye.  As  I  have  already  said,  the 
young  and  the  females  have  the  dark  side  stripe  which 
marks  all  the  tommies;  but  the  old  bucks  lack  this,  and 
their  color  fades  into  the  brown  or  sandy  of  the  dry  plains 
far  more  completely  than  is  the  case  with  zebra  or  kongoni. 
Like  the  other  game  of  the  plains  they  are  sometimes  found 
in  small  parties,  or  else  in  fair-sized  herds,  by  themselves, 
and  sometimes  with  other  beasts;  I  have  seen  a  single  fine 
buck  in  a  herd  of  several  hundred  zebra  and  kongoni.  The 
Thomson's   gazelles,    hardly   a   third   the   weight  of  their 


62  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

larger  kinsfolk,  are  found  scattered  everywhere;  they  are 
not  as  highly  gregarious  as  the  zebra  and  kongoni,  and  are 
not  found  in  such  big  herds;  but  their  little  bands — now  a 
buck  and  several  does,  now  a  couple  of  does  with  their 
fawns,  now  three  or  four  bucks  together,  now  a  score  of 
individuals — are  scattered  everywhere  on  the  flats.  Like 
the  Grants,  their  flesh  is  delicious,  and  they  seem  to  have 
much  the  same  habits.  But  they  have  one  very  marked 
characteristic:  their  tails  keep  up  an  incessant  nervous 
twitching,  never  being  still  for  more  than  a  few  seconds  at 
a  time,  while  the  larger  gazelle  in  this  part  of  its  range 
rarely  moves  its  tail  at  all.  They  are  grazers  and  they 
feed,  rest,  and  go  to  water  at  irregular  times,  or  at  least 
at  different  times  in  different  localities;  and  although  they 
are  most  apt  to  rest  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  I  have 
seen  them  get  up  soon  after  noon,  having  lain  down  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  feed  for  an  hour  or  so,  and  then  lie  down 
again.  In  the  same  way  the  habits  of  the  game  as  to  mi- 
gration vary  with  the  different  districts,  in  Africa  as  in 
America.  There  are  places  where  all  the  game,  perhaps 
notably  the  wildebeests,  gather  in  herds  of  thousands,  at 
certain  times,  and  travel  for  scores  of  miles,  so  that  a  dis- 
trict which  is  teeming  with  game  at  one  time  may  be  almost 
barren  of  large  wild  life  at  another.  But  my  information 
was  that  around  the  Kapiti  Plains  there  was  no  such  com- 
plete and  extensive  shift.  If  the  rains  are  abundant  and 
the  grass  rank,  most  of  the  game  will  be  found  far  out  in 
the  middle  of  the  plains;  if,  as  was  the  case  at  the  time 
of  my  visit,  there  has  been  a  long  drought — the  game  will 
be  found  ten  or  fifteen  miles  away,  near  or  among  the  foot- 
hills. 

Unless  there  was  something  special  on,  like  a  lion  or 
rhinoceros  hunt,  I  usually  rode  off  followed  only  by  my 
sais  and  gun-bearers.  I  cannot  describe  the  beauty  and 
the  unceasing  interest  of  these  rides,  through  the  teeming 
herds  of  game.  It  was  like  retracing  the  steps  of  time  for 
sixty  or  seventy  years,  and  being  back  in  the  days  of  Corn- 


ON   AN   EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH  6.1 

wallis  Harris  and  Gordon  Gumming^  in  the  palmy  times 
of  the  giant  fauna  of  South  Africa.  On  Pease's  own  farm 
one  day  I  passed  through  scores  of  herds  of  the  beautiful 
and  wonderful  wild  creatures  I  have  spoken  of  above;  all 
told  there  were  several  thousands  of  them.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  wildebeest,  most  of  them  were  not  shy,  and  I 
could  have  taken  scores  of  shots  at  a  distance  of  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards  or  thereabout.  Of  course,  I  did  not  shoot 
at  anything  unless  we  were  out  of  meat  or  needed  the  skin 
for  the  collection;  and  when  we  took  the  skin  we  almost 
always  took  the  meat  too,  for  the  porters,  although  they 
had  their  rations  of  rice,  depended  for  much  of  their  well- 
being  on  our  success  with  the  rifle. 

These  rides  through  the  wild,  lonely  country,  with  only 
my  silent  black  followers,  had  a  peculiar  charm.  When 
the  sky  was  overcast  it  was  cool  and  pleasant,  for  it  is  a  high 
country;  as  soon  as  the  sun  appeared  the  vertical  tropic 
rays  made  the  air  quiver  above  the  scorched  land.  As  we 
passed  down  a  hill-side  we  brushed  through  aromatic  shrubs 
and  the  hot,  pleasant  fragrance  enveloped  us.  When  we  came 
to  a  nearly  dry  watercourse,  there  would  be  beds  of  rushes, 
beautiful  lilies  and  lush  green  plants  with  staring  flowers; 
and  great  deep-green  fig-trees,  or  flat-topped  mimosas.  In 
many  of  these  trees  there  were  sure  to  be  native  beehives; 
these  were  sections  of  hollow  logs  hung  from  the  branches; 
they  formed  striking  and  characteristic  features  of  the  land- 
scape. Wherever  there  was  any  moisture  there  were  flow- 
ers, brilliant  of  hue  and  many  of  them  sweet  of  smell;  and 
birds  of  numerous  kinds  abounded.  When  we  left  the  hills 
and  the  wooded  watercourses  we  might  ride  hour  after 
hour  across  the  barren  desolation  of  the  flats,  while  herds 
of  zebra  and  hartebeest  stared  at  us  through  the  heat  haze. 
Then  the  zebra,  with  shrill,  barking  neighs,  would  file  off 
across  the  horizon,  or  the  high-withered  hartebeests,  snort- 
ing and  bucking,  would  rush  off  in  a  confused  mass,  as 
unreasoning  panic  succeeded  foolish  confidence.  If  I  shot 
anything,  vultures  of  several  kinds,  and  the  tall,  hideous 


64  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

marabou  storks,  gathered  before  the  skinners  were  through 
with  their  work;  they  usually  stayed  at  a  wary  distance, 
but  the  handsome  ravens,  glossy-hued  with  white  napes, 
big-billed,  long-winged,  and  short-tailed,  came  round  more 
familiarly. 

I  rarely  had  to  take  the  trouble  to  stalk  anything;  the 
shooting  was  necessarily  at  rather  long  range,  but  by  ma- 
noeuvring a  little,  and  never  walking  straight  toward  a  beast, 
I  was  usually  able  to  get  whatever  the  naturalists  wished. 
Sometimes  I  shot  fairly  well,  and  sometimes  badly.  On 
one  day,  for  instance,  the  entry  in  my  diary  ran:  "Missed 
steinbuck,  pig,  impalla  and  Grant;  awful."  On  another 
day  it  ran  in  part  as  follows:  "Out  with  Heller.  Harte- 
beest,  250  yards,  facing  me;  shot  through  face,  broke  neck. 
Zebra,  very  large,  quartering,  160  yards,  between  neck 
and  shoulder.  Buck  Grant,  220  yards,  walking,  behind 
shoulder.  Steinbuck,  180  yards,  standing,  behind  shoulder." 
Generally  each  head  of  game  bagged  cost  me  a  goodly 
number  of  bullets;  but  only  twice  did  I  wound  animals 
which  I  failed  to  get;  in  the  other  cases  the  extra  cartridges 
represented  either  misses  at  animals  which  got  clean  away 
untouched,  or  else  a  running  fusillade  at  wounded  animals 
which  I  eventually  got.  I  am  a  very  strong  believer  in 
making  sure,  and,  therefore,  in  shooting  at  a  wounded  ani- 
mal as  long  as  there  is  the  least  chance  of  its  getting  off. 
The  expenditure  of  a  few  cartridges  is  of  no  consequence 
whatever  compared  to  the  escape  of  a  single  head  of  game 
which  should  have  been  bagged.  Shooting  at  long  range 
necessitates  much  running.  Some  of  my  successful  shots  at 
Grant's  gazelle  and  kongoni  were  made  at  300,  350,  and 
400  yards;  but  at  such  distances  my  proportion  of  misses 
was  very  large  indeed — and  there  were  altogether  too  many 
even  at  shorter  ranges. 

The  so-called  grass  antelopes,  the  steinbuck  and  duiker, 
were  the  ones  at  which  I  shot  worst;  they  were  quite  plen- 
tiful, and  they  got  up  close,  seeking  to  escape  observation 
by  hiding  until  the  last  moment;    but  they  were  small,  and 


ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH  03 

when  they  did  go  they  rushed  half  hidden  through  the  grass 
and  in  and  out  among  the  bushes  at  such  a  speed,  and  with 
such  jumps  and  twists  and  turns,  that  I  found  it  wellnigh 
impossible  to  hit  them  with  the  rifle.  The  few  I  got  were 
generally  shot  when  they  happened  to  stand  still. 

On  the  steep,  rocky,  bush-clad  hills  there  were  little 
klipspringers  and  the  mountain  reedbuck  or  Chanler's  reed- 
buck,  a  very  pretty  little  creature.  Usually  we  found  the 
reedbuck  does  and  their  fawns  in  small  parties,  and  the 
bucks  by  themselves;  but  we  saw  too  few  to  enable  us  to 
tell  whether  this  represented  their  normal  habits.  They 
fed  on  the  grass,  the  hill  plants,  and  the  tips  of  certain  of 
the  shrubs,  and  were  true  mountaineers  in  their  love  of  the 
rocks  and  rough  ground,  to  which  they  fled  in  frantic  haste 
when  alarmed.  They  were  shy  and  elusive  little  things, 
but  not  wary  in  the  sense  that  some  of  the  larger  antelopes 
are  wary.  I  shot  two  does  with  three  bullets,  all  of  which 
hit.  Then  I  tried  hard  for  a  buck;  at  last,  late  one  evening, 
I  got  up  to  one  feeding  on  a  steep  hill-side,  and  actually 
took  ten  shots  to  kill  him,  hitting  him  no  less  than  seven 
times. 

Occasionally  we  drove  a  ravine  or  a  range  of  hills  by 
means  of  beaters.  On  such  occasions  all  kinds  of  things 
were  put  up.  Most  of  the  beaters,  especially  if  they  were 
wild  savages  impressed  for  the  purpose  from  some  neigh- 
boring tribe,  carried  throwing-sticks,  with  which  they  were 
very  expert;  as  indeed  were  some  of  the  colonials,  like  the 
Hills.  Hares,  looking  and  behaving  much  like  small  jack- 
rabbits,  were  plentiful  both  on  the  plains  and  in  the  ra- 
vines, and  dozens  of  these  were  knocked  over;  while  on 
several  occasions  I  saw  francolins  and  spurfowl  cut  down 
on  the  wing  by  a  throwing-stick  hurled  from  some  un- 
usually dexterous  hand. 

The  beats,  with  the  noise  and  laughter  of  the  good- 
humored,  excitable  savages,  and  the  alert  interest  as  to  what 
would  turn  up  next,  were  great  fun;  but  the  days  I  enjoyed 
most  were  those  spent  alone  with  my  horse  and  gun-bearers. 


66  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

We  might  be  off  by  dawn,  and  see  the  tropic  sun  flame 
splendid  over  the  brink  of  the  world;  strange  creatures 
rustled  through  the  bush  or  fled  dimly  through  the  long 
grass,  before  the  light  grew  bright;  and  the  air  was  fresh 
and  sweet  as  it  blew  in  our  faces.  When  the  still  heat  of 
noon  drew  near  I  would  stop  under  a  tree,  with  my  water 
canteen  and  my  lunch.  The  men  lay  in  the  shade,  and  the 
hobbled  pony  grazed  close  by,  while  I  either  dozed  or  else 
watched  through  my  telescope  the  herds  of  game  lying 
down  or  standing  drowsily  in  the  distance.  As  the  shadows 
lengthened  I  would  again  mount,  and  finally  ride  home- 
ward as  the  red  sunset  paled  to  amber  and  opal,  and  all 
the  vast,  mysterious  African  landscape  grew  to  wonderful 
beauty  in  the  dying  twilight. 


CHAPTER   III 
LION   HUNTING   ON   THE   KAPITI    PLAINS 

The  dangerous  game  of  Africa  are  the  lion,  buffalo, 
elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  leopard.  The  hunter  who  fol- 
lows any  of  these  animals  always  does  so  at  a  certain  risk 
to  life  or  limb;  a  risk  which  it  is  his  business  to  minimize 
by  coolness,  caution,  good  judgment,  and  straight  shooting. 
The  leopard  is  in  point  of  pluck  and  ferocity  more  than  the 
equal  of  the  other  four;  but  his  small  size  always  renders 
it  likely  that  he  will  merely  maul,  and  not  kill,  a  man. 
My  friend,  Carl  Akeley,  of  Chicago,  actually  killed  bare- 
handed a  leopard  which  sprang  on  him.  He  had  already 
wounded  the  beast  twice,  crippling  it  in  one  front  and  one 
hind  paw;  whereupon  it  charged,  followed  him  as  he  tried 
to  dodge  the  charge,  and  struck  him  full  just  as  he  turned. 
It  bit  him  in  one  arm,  biting  again  and  again  as  it  worked 
up  the  arm  from  the  wrist  to  the  elbow;  but  Akeley  threw  it, 
holding  its  throat  with  the  other  hand,  and  flinging  its  body 
to  one  side.  It  luckily  fell  on  its  side  with  its  two  wounded 
legs  uppermost,  so  that  it  could  not  tear  him.  He  fell  for- 
ward with  it  and  crushed  in  its  chest  with  his  knees  until 
he  distinctly  felt  one  of  its  ribs  crack;  this,  said  Akeley, 
was  the  first  moment  when  he  felt  he  might  conquer.  Re- 
doubling his  eff^orts,  with  knees  and  hand,  he  actually 
choked  and  crushed  the  life  out  of  it,  although  his  arm  was 
badly  bitten.  A  leopard  will  charge  at  least  as  readily  as 
one  of  the  big  beasts,  and  is  rather  more  apt  to  get  his  charge 
home,  but  the  risk  is  less  to  life  than  to  limb. 

There  are  other  animals  often  or  occasionally  danger- 
ous to  human  life  which  are,  nevertheless,  not  dangerous 
to  the  hunter.  Crocodiles  are  far  greater  pests,  and  far 
more  often  man-eaters,  than  lions  or  leopards;    but  their 

67 


68  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

shooting  is  not  accompanied  by  the  smallest  element  of 
risk.  Poisonous  snakes  are  fruitful  sources  of  accident, 
but  they  are  actuated  only  by  fear,  and  the  anger  born  of 
fear.  The  hippopotamus  sometimes  destroys  boats  and 
kills  those  in  them;  but  again  there  is  no  risk  in  hunting 
him.  Finally,  the  hyena,  too  cowardly  ever  to  be  a  source 
of  danger  to  the  hunter,  is  sometimes  a  dreadful  curse  to 
the  weak  and  helpless.  The  hyena  is  a  beast  of  unusual 
strength,  and  of  enormous  power  in  his  jaws  and  teeth, 
and  thrice  over  would  he  be  dreaded  were  fang  and  sinew 
driven  by  a  heart  of  the  leopard's  cruel  courage.  But 
though  the  creature's  foul  and  evil  ferocity  has  no  such 
backing  as  that  yielded  by  the  angry  daring  of  the  spotted 
cat,  it  is  yet  fraught  with  a  terror  all  its  own;  for  on  oc- 
casion the  hyena  takes  to  man-eating  after  its  own  fashion. 
Carrion-feeder  though  it  is,  in  certain  places  it  will  enter 
native  huts  and  carry  away  children  or  even  sleeping  adults; 
and  where  famine  or  disease  has  worked  havoc  among  a 
people,  the  hideous  spotted  beasts  become  bolder  and 
prey  on  the  survivors.  For  some  years  past  Uganda  has 
been  scourged  by  the  sleeping  sickness,  which  has  ravaged 
it  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  Black  Death  ravaged  Europe. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  natives  have  died.  Every  effort 
has  been  made  by  the  government  officials  to  cope  with 
the  disease;  and  among  other  things  sleeping-sickness 
camps  have  been  established,  where  those  stricken  by  the 
dread  malady  can  be  isolated  and  cease  to  be  possible 
sources  of  infection  to  their  fellows.  Recovery  among 
those  stricken  is  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  unknown,  but  the 
disease  is  often  slow,  and  months  may  elapse  during  which 
the  diseased  man  is  still  able  to  live  his  life  much  as  usual. 
In  the  big  camps  of  doomed  men  and  women  thus  estab- 
lished there  were,  therefore,  many  persons  carrying  on 
their  avocations  much  as  in  an  ordinary  native  village. 
But  the  hyenas  speedily  found  that  in  many  of  the  huts  the 
inmates  were  a  helpless  prey.  In  1908  and  throughout 
the  early  part  of  1909  they  grew  constantly  bolder,  haunt- 


Kermit  Roosevelt,  Sir  Alfred  Pease,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  the  carcass  of  first  big  lion 


70  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

ing  these  sleeping-sickness  camps,  and  each  night  enter- 
ing them,  bursting  into  the  huts  and  carrying  off  and  eating 
the  dying  people.  To  guard  against  them  each  little  group 
of  huts  was  inclosed  by  a  thick  hedge;  but  after  a  while 
the  hyenas  learned  to  break  through  the  hedges,  and  con- 
tinued their  ravages;  so  that  every  night  armed  sentries  had 
to  patrol  the  camps,  and  every  night  they  could  be  heard 
firing  at  the  marauders. 

The  men  thus  preyed  on  were  sick  to  death,  and  for 
the  most  part  helpless.  But  occasionally  men  in  full  vigor 
are  attacked.  One  of  Pease's  native  hunters  was  seized 
by  a  hyena  as  he  slept  beside  the  camp-fire,  and  part  of 
his  face  torn  off.  Selous  informed  me  that  a  friend  of  his, 
Major  R.  T.  Coryndon,  then  administrator  of  Northwestern 
Rhodesia,  was  attacked  by  a  hyena  but  two  or  three  years 
ago.  At  the  time  Major  Coryndon  was  lying,  wrapped  in 
a  blanket,  beside  his  wagon.  A  hyena,  stealthily  approach- 
ing through  the  night,  seized  him  by  the  hand,  and  dragged 
him  out  of  bed;  but  as  he  struggled  and  called  out,  the 
beast  left  him  and  ran  off  into  the  darkness.  In  spite  of  his 
torn  hand  the  major  was  determined  to  get  his  assailant, 
which  he  felt  sure  would  soon  return.  Accordingly,  he 
went  back  to  his  bed,  drew  his  cocked  rifle  beside  him, 
pointing  toward  his  feet,  and  feigned  sleep.  When  all 
was  still  once  more,  a  dim  form  loomed  up  through  the 
uncertain  light,  toward  the  foot  of  the  bed;  it  was  the  rav- 
enous beast  returning  for  his  prey;  and  the  major  shot  and 
killed  it  where  it  stood. 

A  few  months  ago  a  hyena  entered  the  outskirts  of 
Nairobi,  crept  into  a  hut,  and  seized  and  killed  a  native 
man.  At  Nairobi  the  wild  creatures  are  always  at  the 
threshold  of  the  town,  and  often  cross  it.  At  Governor 
Jackson's  table,  at  Government  House,  I  met  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Sandiford.  Mr.  Sandiford  is  managing  the  railroad. 
A  few  months  previously,  while  he  was  sitting,  with  his 
family,  in  his  own  house  in  Nairobi,  he  happened  to  ask 
his  daughter  to  look  for  something  in  one  of  the  bedrooms. 


LION  HUNTING   ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS  71 

She  returned  in  a  minute,  quietly  remarking,  "Father, 
there's  a  leopard  under  the  bed."  So  there  was;  and  it 
was  then  remembered  that  the  house-cat  had  been  showing 
a  marked  and  alert  distrust  of  the  room  in  question — very 
probably  the  leopard  had  gotten  into  the  house  while  try- 
ing to  catch  her  or  one  of  the  dogs.  A  neighbor  with  a  rifle 
was  summoned,  and  shot  the  leopard. 

Hyenas  not  infrequently  kill  mules  and  donkeys,  tear- 
ing open  their  bellies,  and  eating  them  while  they  are  still 
alive.  Yet  when  themselves  assailed  they  usually  behave 
with  abject  cowardice.  The  Hills  had  a  large  Airedale 
terrier,  an  energetic  dog  of  much  courage.  Not  long  before 
our  visit  this  dog  put  up  a  hyena  from  a  bushy  ravine,  in 
broad  daylight,  ran  after  it,  overtook  it,  and  flew  at  it. 
The  hyena  made  no  effective  fight,  although  the  dog — not 
a  third  its  weight — bit  it  severely,  and  delayed  its  flight  so 
that  it  was  killed.  During  the  first  few  weeks  of  our  trip 
I  not  infrequently  heard  hyenas  after  nightfall,  but  saw 
none.  Kermit,  however,  put  one  out  of  a  ravine  or  dry 
creek-bed — a  donga,  as  it  is  locally  called — and  though  the 
brute  had  a  long  start  he  galloped  after  it  and  succeeded 
in  running  it  down.  The  chase  was  a  long  one,  for  twice  the 
hyena  got  in  such  rocky  country  that  he  almost  distanced 
his  pursuer;  but  at  last,  after  covering  nearly  ten  miles, 
Kermit  ran  into  it  in  the  open,  shooting  it  from  the  saddle 
as  it  shambled  along  at  a  canter  growling  with  rage  and 
terror.  I  would  not  have  recognized  the  cry  of  the  hyenas 
from  what  I  had  read,  and  it  was  long  before  I  heard  them 
laugh.  Pease  said  that  he  had  only  once  heard  them  really 
laugh.  On  that  occasion  he  was  watching  for  lions  outside 
a  Somali  zareba.  Suddenly  a  leopard  leaped  clear  over 
the  zareba,  close  beside  him,  and  in  a  few  seconds  came 
flying  back  again,  over  the  high  thorn  fence,  with  a  sheep 
in  its  mouth;  but  no  sooner  had  it  landed  than  the  hyenas 
rushed  at  it  and  took  away  the  sheep;  and  then  their  cack- 
ling and  shrieking  sounded  exactly  like  the  most  unpleasant 
kind  of  laughter.     The  normal  death  of  very  old  lions,  as 


72  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

they  grow  starved  and  feeble — unless  they  are  previously 
killed  in  an  encounter  with  dangerous  game  like  buffalo — 
is  to  be  killed  and  eaten  by  hyenas;  but  of  course  a  lion 
in  full  vigor  pays  no  heed  to  hyenas,  unless  it  is  to  kill  one 
if  it  gets  in  the  way. 

During  the  last  few  decades,  in  Africa,  hundreds  of 
white  hunters,  and  thousands  of  native  hunters,  have  been 
killed  or  wounded  by  lions,  buffaloes,  elephants,  and  rhinos. 
All  are  dangerous  game;  each  species  has  to  its  grewsome 
credit  a  long  list  of  mighty  hunters  slain  or  disabled.  Among 
those  competent  to  express  judgment  there  is  the  widest 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  comparative  danger  in  hunt- 
ing the  several  kinds  of  animals.  Probably  no  other  hunter 
who  has  ever  lived  has  combined  Selous's  experience  with 
his  skill  as  a  hunter  and  his  power  of  accurate  observation 
and  narration.  He  has  killed  between  three  and  four 
hundred  lions,  elephants,  buffaloes,  and  rhinos,  and  he 
ranks  the  lion  as  much  the  most  dangerous,  and  the  rhino 
as  much  the  least,  while  he  puts  the  buffalo  and  elephant 
in  between,  and  practically  on  a  par.  Governor  Jackson 
has  killed  between  eighty  and  ninety  of  the  four  animals; 
and  he  puts  the  buffalo  uncjuestionably  first  in  point  of  for- 
midable capacity  as  a  foe,  the  elephant  equally  unques- 
tionably second,  the  lion  third,  and  the  rhino  last.  Stigand 
puts  them  in  the  following  order:  lion,  elephant,  rhino, 
leopard,  and  buffalo.  Drummond,  who  wrote  a  capital 
book  on  South  African  game,  who  was  for  years  a  pro- 
fessional hunter  like  Selous,  and  who  had  fine  opportunities 
for  observation,  but  who  was  a  much  less  accurate  observer 
than  Selous,  put  the  rhino  as  unquestionably  the  most  dan- 
gerous, with  the  lion  as  second,  and  the  buffalo  and  elephant 
nearly  on  a  level.  Samuel  Baker,  a  mighty  hunter  and  good 
observer,  but  with  less  experience  of  African  game  than  any 
one  of  the  above,  put  the  elephant  first,  the  rhino  second, 
the  buffalo  seemingly  third,  and  the  lion  last.  The  experts 
of  greatest  experience  thus  absolutely  disagree  among  them- 
selves;   and   there   is   the   same  wide   divergence   of  view 


LION  HUNTING   ON  THE   KAPITI  PLAINS 


73 


among  good  hunters  and  trained  observers  whose  oppor- 
tunities have  been  less.  Mr.  Abel  Chapman,  for  instance, 
regards  both  the  elephant  and  the  rhino  as  more  danger- 


Clifford   Hill's   Kikuyu  ostrich  boys  as  they  beat  the  tall  grass  tor  lion   on   the 
third  day  of  lion  hunting  at   Killima  (Hill)  Ugami,  when  we  got  two  large 
and  one  small  one.     The  boys  had  their  bows  and  arrows  for  protection 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

ous  than  the  lion;  and  many  of  the  hunters  I  met  in  East 
Africa  seemed  inclined  to  rank  the  buffalo  as  more  danger- 
ous than  any  other  animal.     A  man  who  has  shot  but  a 


74  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

dozen  or  a  score  of  these  various  animals,  all  put  together, 
is  not  entitled  to  express  any  but  the  most  tentative  opinion 
as  to  their  relative  prowess  and  ferocity;  yet  on  the  whole 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  weight  of  opinion  among  those  best 
fitted  to  judge  is  that  the  lion  is  the  most  formidable  op- 
ponent of  the  hunter,  under  ordinary  conditions.  This  is 
my  own  view.  But  we  must  ever  keep  in  mind  the  fact 
that  the  surrounding  conditions,  the  geographical  locality, 
and  the  wide  individual  variation  of  temper  within  the 
ranks  of  each  species,  must  all  be  taken  into  account. 
Under  certain  circumstances  a  lion  may  be  easily  killed, 
whereas  a  rhino  would  be  a  dangerous  foe.  Under  other 
conditions  the  rhino  could  be  attacked  with  impunity,  and 
the  lion  only  with  the  utmost  hazard;  and  one  bull  buffalo 
might  flee  and  one  bull  elephant  charge,  and  yet  the  next 
couple  met  with  might  show  an  exact  reversal  of  behavior. 
At  any  rate,  during  the  last  three  or  four  years,  in  Ger- 
man and  British  East  Africa  and  Uganda,  over  fifty  white 
men  have  been  killed  or  mauled  by  lions^  buffaloes,  elephants, 
and  rhinos;  and  the  lions  have  much  the  largest  list  of 
victims  to  their  credit.  In  Nairobi  church-yard  I  was  shown 
the  graves  of  seven  men  who  had  been  killed  by  lions,  and 
of  one  who  had  been  killed  by  a  rhino.  The  first  man 
to  meet  us  on  the  African  shore  was  Mr.  Campbell,  Gov- 
ernor Jackson's  A.D.C.,  and  only  a  year  previously  he  had 
been  badly  mauled  by  a  lion.  We  met  one  gentleman  who 
had  been  crippled  for  life  by  a  lioness.  He  had  marked 
her  into  some  patches  of  brush,  and  coming  up,  tried  to  put 
her  out  of  one  thick  clump.  Failing,  he  thought  she  might 
have  gone  into  another  thicket,  and  walked  toward  it; 
instantly  that  his  back  was  turned,  the  lioness,  who  had 
really  been  in  the  first  clump  of  brush,  raced  out  after  him, 
threw  him  down,  and  bit  him  again  and  again  before  she 
was  driven  off.  One  night  we  camped  at  the  very  spot 
where,  a  score  of  years  before,  a  strange  tragedy  had  hap- 
pened. It  was  in  the  early  days  of  the  opening  of  the  coun- 
try, and  an  expedition  was  going  toward  Uganda;    one  of 


i     rt 


7G  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

the  officials  in  charge  was  sleeping  In  a  tent  with  the  flap 
open.  There  was  an  askari  on  duty;  yet  a  lion  crept  up, 
entered  the  tent,  and  seized  and  dragged  forth  the  man. 
He  struggled  and  made  outcry;  there  was  a  rush  of  people, 
and  the  lion  dropped  his  prey  and  bounded  off.  The 
man's  wounds  were  dressed,  and  he  was  put  back  to  bed  in 
his  own  tent;  but  an  hour  or  two  after  the  camp  again  grew 
still,  the  lion  returned,  bent  on  the  victim  of  whom  he  had 
been  robbed;  he  re-entered  the  tent,  seized  the  unfortu- 
nate wounded  man  with  his  great  fangs,  and  this  time 
made  off  with  him  into  the  surrounding  darkness,  killed 
and  ate  him.  Not  far  from  the  scene  of  this  tragedy, 
another  had  occurred.  An  English  officer  named  Stewart, 
while  endeavoring  to  kill  his  first  lion,  was  himself  set  on  and 
slain.  At  yet  another  place  we  were  shown  where  two 
settlers,  Messrs.  Lucas  and  Goldfinch,  had  been  one  killed 
and  one  crippled  by  a  lion  they  had  been  hunting.  They 
had  been  following  the  chase  on  horseback,  and  being  men 
of  bold  nature,  and  having  killed  several  lions,  had  become 
too  daring.  They  hunted  the  lion  into  a  small  piece  of 
brush  and  rode  too  near  it.  It  came  out  at  a  run  and  was 
on  them  before  their  horses  could  get  under  way.  Gold- 
finch was  knocked  over  and  badly  bitten  and  clawed;  Lu- 
cas went  to  his  assistance,  and  was  in  his  turn  knocked 
over,  and  the  lion  then  lay  on  him  and  bit  him  to  death. 
Goldfinch,  in  spite  of  his  own  severe  wounds,  crawled 
over  and  shot  the  great  beast  as  it  lay  on  his  friend. 

Most  of  the  settlers  with  whom  I  was  hunting  had  met 
with  various  adventures  in  connection  with  lions.  Sir 
Alfred  had  shot  many  in  different  parts  of  Africa;  some 
had  charged  fiercely,  but  he  always  stopped  them.  Cap- 
tain Slatter  had  killed  a  big  male  with  a  mane  a  few  months 
previously.  He  was  hunting  it  in  company  with  Mr.  Hum- 
phery,  the  district  commissioner  of  whom  I  have  already 
spoken,  and  it  gave  them  some  exciting  moments,  for  when 
hit  it  charged  savagely.  Humphery  had  a  shot-gun  loaded 
with  buckshot,  Slatter  his  rifle.     When  wounded,  the  lion 


LION  HUNTING   ON  THE   KAPITI  PLAINS  77 

charged  straight  home,  hit  Slatter,  knocking  him  flat  and 
rolHng  him  over  and  over  in  the  sand,  and  then  went  after 
the  native  gun-bearer,  who  was  running  away — the  worst 
possible  course  to  follow  with  a  charging  lion.  The  mech- 
anism of  Skitter's  rifle  was  choked  by  the  sand,  and  as  he 
rose  to  his  feet  he  saw  the  lion  overtake  the  fleeing  man, 
rise  on  his  hind  legs  like  a  rearing  horse — not  springing— 
and  strike  down  the  fugitive.  Humphery  fired  into  him 
with  buckshot,  which  merely  went  through  the  skin;  and 
some  minutes  elapsed  before  Slatter  was  able  to  get  his 
rifle  in  shape  to  kill  the  lion,  which,  fortunately,  had  be- 
gun to  feel  the  effect  of  his  wounds,  and  was  too  sick  to  re- 
sume hostilities  of  its  own  accord.  The  gun-bearer  was 
badly  but  not  fatally  injured.  Before  this,  Slatter,  while 
on  a  lion  hunt,  had  been  set  afoot  by  one  of  the  animals  he 
was  after,  which  had  killed  his  horse.  It  was  at  night  and 
the  horse  was  tethered  within  six  yards  of  his  sleeping 
master.  The  latter  was  aroused  by  the  horse  galloping  off, 
and  he  heard  it  staggering  on  for  some  sixty  yards  before 
it  fell.  He  and  his  friend  followed  it  with  lanterns  and 
drove  off^  the  lion,  but  the  horse  was  dead.  The  tracks  and 
the  marks  on  the  horse  showed  what  had  happened.  The 
lion  had  sprung  clean  on  the  horse's  back,  his  fore  claws 
dug  into  the  horse's  shoulders,  his  hind  claws  cutting  into 
its  haunches,  while  the  great  fangs  bit  at  the  neck.  The 
horse  struggled  off  at  a  heavy  run,  carrying  its  fearsome 
burden.  After  going  some  sixty  yards  the  lion's  teeth 
went  through  the  spinal  cord,  and  the  ride  was  over. 
Neither  animal  had  made  a  sound,  and  the  lion's  feet  did 
not  touch  the  earth  until  the  horse  fell. 

While  a  magistrate  in  the  Transvaal,  Pease  had  under 
him  as  game  officer  a  white  hunter,  a  fine  feHow,  who  under- 
went an  extraordinary  experience.  He  had  been  off  some 
distance  with  his  Kaffir  boys,  to  hunt  a  lion.  On  his  w^ay 
home  the  hunter  was  hunted.  It  was  after  nightfall.  He 
had  reached  a  region  where  lions  had  not  been  seen  for  a 
long  time,  and  where  an  attack  by  them  was  unknown. 


78  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

He  was  riding  along  a  trail  in  the  darkness,  his  big  boar- 
hound  trotting  ahead,  his  native  "boys"  some  distance 
behind.  He  heard  a  rustle  in  the  bushes  alongside  the 
path,  but  paid  no  heed,  thinking  it  was  a  reedbuck.  Im- 
mediately afterward  two  lions  came  out  in  the  path  behind 
and  raced  after  him.  One  sprang  on  him,  tore  him  out 
of  the  saddle,  and  trotted  off  holding  him  in  its  mouth,  while . 
the  other  continued  after  the  frightened  horse.  The  lion 
had  him  by  the  right  shoulder,  and  yet  with  his  left  hand 
he  wrenched  his  knife  out  of  his  belt  and  twice  stabbed  it. 
The  second  stab  went  to  the  heart  and  the  beast  let  go  of 
him,  stood  a  moment,  and  fell  dead.  Meanwhile,  the  dog 
had  followed  the  other  lion,  which  now,  having  abandoned 
the  chase  of  the  horse,  and  with  the  dog  still  at  his  heels, 
came  trotting  back  to  look  for  the  man.  Crippled  though 
he  was,  the  hunter  managed  to  climb  a  small  tree;  and 
though  the  lion  might  have  gotten  him  out  of  it,  the  dog 
interfered.  Whenever  the  lion  came  toward  the  tree  the 
dog  worried  him,  and  kept  him  off  until,  at  the  shouts  and 
torches  of  the  approaching  Kaffir  boys,  he  sullenly  retired, 
and  the  hunter  was  rescued. 

Percival  had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  lion,  which  nearly 
got  him,  though  probably  under  a  misunderstanding.  He 
was  riding  through  a  wet  spot  of  ground,  where  the  grass 
was  four  feet  high,  when  his  horse  suddenly  burst  into  a 
run  and  the  next  moment  a  lion  had  galloped  almost  along- 
side of  him.  Probably  the  lion  thought  it  was  a  zebra,  for 
when  Percival,  leaning  over,  yelled  in  his  face,  the  lion 
stopped  short.  But  he  at  once  came  on  again,  and  nearly 
caught  the  horse.  However,  they  were  now  out  of  the  tall 
grass^  and  the  lion  gradually  drew  up  when  they  reached 
the  open  country. 

The  two  Hills,  Clifford  and  Harold,  were  running  an 
ostrich-farm.  The  lions  sometimes  killed  their  ostriches 
and  stock;  and  the  Hills  in  return  had  killed  several  lions. 
The  Hills  were  fine  fellows;  Africanders,  as  their  fore- 
fathers for  three  generations  had  been,  and  frontiersmen  of 


LION  HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS 


79 


the  best  kind.  From  the  first  moment  they  and  I  became 
fast  friends,  for  we  instinctively  understood  one  another, 
and  found  that  we  felt  alike  on  all  the  big  questions,  and 
looked  at  life,  and  especially  the  life  of  effort  led  by  the 
pioneer  settler,  from  the 
same  stand-point.  They 
reminded  me,  at  every 
moment,  of  those  West- 
ern ranchmen  and  home- 
makers  with  whom  I 
have  always  felt  a  special 
sense  of  companionship 
and  with  whose  ideals 
and  aspirations  I  have 
always  felt  a  special 
sympathy.  A  couple  of 
months  before  my  visit, 
Harold  Hill  had  met 
with  a  rather  unpleasant 
adventure.  He  was  walk- 
ing home  across  the  lone- 
ly plains,  in  the  broad 
daylight,  never  dream- 
ing that  lions  might  be 
abroad,  and  was  un- 
armed. When  still  some 
miles  from  his  house,  while  plodding  along,  he  glanced  up 
and  saw  three  lions  in  the  trail  only  fifty  yards  off,  staring 
fixedly  at  him.  It  happened  to  be  a  place  where  the  grass 
was  rather  tall,  and  lions  are  always  bold  where  there  is  the 
slightest  cover;  whereas,  unless  angered,  they  are  cautious 
on  bare  ground.  He  halted,  and  then  walked  slowly  to 
one  side;  and  then  slowly  forward  toward  his  house.  The 
lions  followed  him  with  their  eyes,  and  when  he  had  passed 
they  rose  and  slouched  after  him.  They  were  not  pleasant 
followers,  but  to  hurry  would  have  been  fatal;  and  he  walked 
slowly  on  along  the  road,  while  for  a  mile  he  kept  catching 


One  of  the  native  beaters  and  gun-bearers 

From  a  photograph  by  Edimuid  Heller 


80  AFRICAN   GA^IE  TRAILS 

glimpses  of  the  tawny  bodies  of  the  beasts  as  they  trod 
stealthily  forward  through  the  sunburned  grass,  alongside 
or  a  little  behind  him.  Then  the  grass  grew  short,  and  the 
lions  halted  and  continued  to  gaze  after  him  until  he  dis- 
appeared over  a  rise. 

Everywhere  throughout  the  country  we  were  crossing 
were  signs  that  the  lion  was  lord  and  that  his  reign  was 
cruel.  There  were  many  lions,  for  the  game  on  which  they 
feed  was  extraordinarily  abundant.  They  occasionally  took 
the  ostriches  or  stock  of  the  settlers,  or  ravaged  the  herds 
and  flocks  of  the  natives,  but  not  often;  for  their  favor- 
ite food  was  yielded  by  the  swarming  herds  of  kongoni 
and  zebras,  on  which  they  could  prey  at  will.  Later  we 
found  that  in  this  region  they  rarely  molested  the  buffalo, 
even  where  they  lived  in  the  same  reedbeds;  and  this  though 
elsewhere  they  habitually  prey  on  the  buffalo.  But  where 
zebras  and  hartebeests  could  be  obtained  without  effort, 
it  was  evidently  not  worth  their  while  to  challenge  such 
formidable  quarry.  Every  ''kill"  I  saw  was  a  kongoni  or 
a  zebra;  probably  I  came  across  fifty  of  each.  One  zebra 
kill,  which  was  not  more  than  eighteen  hours  old  (after 
the  lapse  of  that  time  the  vultures  and  marabouts,  not  to 
speak  of  the  hyenas  and  jackals,  leave  only  the  bare  bones), 
showed  just  what  had  occurred.  The  bones  were  all  in 
place,  and  the  skin  still  on  the  lower  legs  and  head.  The 
animal  was  lying  on  its  belly,  the  legs  spread  out,  the  neck 
vertebra  crushed;  evidently  the  lion  had  sprung  clean  on 
it,  bearing  it  down  by  his  weight  while  he  bit  through  the 
back  of  the  neck,  and  the  zebra's  legs  had  spread  out  as  the 
body  yielded  under  the  lion.  One  fresh  kongoni  kill  showed 
no  marks  on  the  haunches,  but  a  broken  neck  and  claw 
marks  on  the  face  and  withers;  in  this  case  the  lion's  hind 
legs  had  remained  on  the  ground,  while  with  his  fore  paws 
he  grasped  the  kongoni's  head  and  shoulders,  holding  it 
until  the  teeth  splintered  the  neck  bone. 

One  or  two  of  our  efforts  to  get  lions  failed,  of  course; 
the  ravines  we  beat  did  not  contain  them,  or  we  failed  to 


LION  HUNTING   ON  THE   KAPITI  PLAINS 


81 


make  them  leave  some  particularly  difficult  hill  or  swamp — 
for  lions  lie  close.  But  Sir  Alfred  knew  just  the  right  place 
to  go  to,  and  was  bound  to  get  us  lions— and  he  did. 

One  day  we  started  from  the  ranch  house  in  good  sea- 
son for  an  all-day  lion  hunt.  Besides  Kermit  and  myself, 
there  was  a  fellow-guest,  Medlicott,  and  not  only  our  host. 


The  start  for  the  first  day's  lion  huntint 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


but  our  hostess  and  her  daughter;  and  we  were  joined  by 
Percival  at  lunch,  which  we  took  under  a  great  fig-tree,  at 
the  foot  of  a  high,  rocky  hill,  Percival  had  with  him  a  little 
mongrel  bull-dog,  and  a  Masai  *'boy,"  a  fine,  bold-looking 
savage,  with  a  handsome  head-dress  and  the  usual  formidable 
spear;  master,  man,  and  dog  evidently  all  looked  upon  any 
form  of  encounter  with  lions  simply  in  the  light  of  a  spree. 
After  lunch  we  began  to  beat  down  a  long  donga,  or  dry 
watercourse — a  creek,  as  we  should  call  it  in  the  Western 


82  AFRICAN   GA^IE  TRAILS 

plains  country.  The  watercourse,  with  low,  steep  banks, 
wound  in  curves,  and  here  and  there  were  patches  of  brush, 
which  might  contain  anything  in  the  shape  of  lion,  chee- 
tah, hyena,  or  wild  dog.  Soon  we  came  upon  lion  spoor 
in  the  sandy  bed;  first  the  footprints  of  a  big  male,  then 
those  of  a  lioness.  We  walked  cautiously  along  each  side  of 
the  donga,  the  horses  following  close  behind  so  that  if  the 


View  of  rock  where  we  lunched  on  the  day  we  got  the  first  four  lions 
Fro77i  a  photograph  by  Lady  Pease 

lion  were  missed  we  could  gallop  after  him  and  round  him 
up  on  the  plain.  The  dogs — for  besides  the  little  bull,  we 
had  a  large  brindled  mongrel  named  Ben,  whose  courage 
belied  his  looks — began  to  show  signs  of  scenting  the  lion; 
and  we  beat  out  each  patch  of  brush,  the  natives  shouting 
and  throwing  in  stones,  while  we  stood  with  the  rifles  where 
we  could  best  command  any  probable  exit.  After  a  couple 
of  false  alarms  the  dogs  drew  toward  one  patch,  their  hair 
bristling,  and  showing  such  eager  excitement  that  it  was 
evident  something  big  was  inside;   and  in  a  moment  one  of 


LION  HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS 


83 


the  boys  called,  *'simba"  (lion),  and  pointed  with  his  fin- 
ger. It  was  just  across  the  little  ravine,  there  about  four 
yards  wide  and  as  many  feet  deep;    and  I  shifted  my  posi- 


l?il'^»*%» 

%l 

pL 

'a^^/JMH 

mm   '       .  ^,,m 

'—-■^          -.«■ 

r   ~m  ■  1 

-^^^H 

■■  ■  ■        J 

,^ 

■'■■  ■  "'^i^B! 

.....,...^.J 

Noon  at  Ugami.     Sir  Alfred  Pease  bending  over  behind  Mr.  Roosevelt 

From  a  photograph  hy  Kerinit  Roosevelt 

tion,  peering  eagerly  into  the  bushes  for  some  moments 
before  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  tawny  hide;  as  it  moved,  there 
was  a  call  to  me  to  "  shoot,"  for  at  that  distance,  if  the  lion 


84  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

charged,  there  would  be  scant  time  to  stop  it;  and  I  fired 
into  what  I  saw.  There  was  a  commotion  in  the  bushes, 
and  Kermit  fired;  and  immediately  afterward  there  broke 
out  on  the  other  side,  not  the  hoped-for  big  lion,  but  two 
cubs  the  size  of  mastifi^s.  Each  was  badly  wounded  and  we 
finished  them  off;  even  if  unwounded,  they  were  too  big 
to  take  alive. 

This  was  a  great  disappointment,  and  as  it  was  well 
on  in  the  afternoon,  and  we  had  beaten  the  country  most  apt 
to  harbor  our  game,  it  seemed  unlikely  that  we  would  have 
another  chance.  Percival  was  on  foot  and  a  long  way 
from  his  house,  so  he  started  for  it;  and  the  rest  of  us  also 
began  to  jog  homeward.  But  Sir  Alfred,  although  he  said 
nothing,  intended  to  have  another  try.  After  going  a  mile 
or  two  he  started  off  to  the  left  at  a  brisk  canter;  and  we, 
the  other  riders,  followed,  leaving  behind  our  gun-bearers, 
saises,  and  porters.  A  couple  of  miles  away  was  another 
donga,  another  shallow  watercourse  with  occasional  big 
brush  patches  along  the  winding  bed;  and  toward  this  we 
cantered.  Almost  as  soon  as  we  reached  it  our  leader  found 
the  spoor  of  two  big  lions;  and  with  every  sense  acock,  we 
dismounted  and  approached  the  first  patch  of  tall  bushes. 
We  shouted  and  threw  in  stones,  but  nothing  came  out; 
and  another  small  patch  showed  the  same  result.  Then 
we  mounted  our  horses  again,  and  rode  toward  another 
patch  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off.  I  was  mounted  on  Tran- 
quillity, the  stout  and  quiet  sorrel. 

This  patch  of  tall,  thick  brush  stood  on  the  hither 
bank — that  is,  on  our  side  of  the  watercourse.  We  rode 
up  to  it  and  shouted  loudly.  The  response  was  immediate, 
in  the  shape  of  loud  gruntings,  and  crashings  through 
the  thick  brush.  We  were  off  our  horses  in  an  instant, 
I  throwing  the  reins  over  the  head  of  mine;  and  without 
delay  the  good  old  fellow  began  placidly  grazing,  quite  un- 
moved by  the  ominous  sounds  immediately  in  front. 

I  sprang  to  one  side;  and  for  a  second  or  two  we  waited, 
uncertain  whether  we  should  see  the  lions  charging  out 


LION   HUNTING   ON   THE   KAI'ITI  PLAINS  85 

ten  yards  distant  or  running  away.  Fortunately,  they 
adopted  the  latter  course.  Right  in  front  of  me,  thirty 
yards  ofT,  there  appeared,  from  behind  the  bushes  which 
had  first  screened  him  from  my  eyes,  the  tawny,  galloping 
form  of  a  big  maneless  lion.  Crack!  the  Winchester  spoke; 
and  as  the  soft-nosed  bullet  ploughed  forward  through  his 
flank  the  lion  swerved  so  that  I  missed  him  with  the  second 
shot;  but  my  third  bullet  went  through  the  spine  and  for- 
ward into  his  chest.  Down  he  came,  sixty  yards  off,  his 
hind  quarters  dragging,  his  head  up,  his  ears  back,  his 
jaws  open  and  lips  drawn  up  in  a  prodigious  snarl,  as  he 
endeavored  to  turn  to  face  us.  His  back  was  broken;  but 
of  this  we  could  not  at  the  moment  be  sure,  and  if  it  had 
merely  been  grazed,  he  might  have  recovered,  and  then, 
even  though  dying,  his  charge  might  have  done  mischief. 
So  Kermit,  Sir  Alfred,  and  I  fired,  almost  together,  into  his 
chest.     His  head  sank,  and  he  died. 

This  lion  had  come  out  on  the  left  of  the  bushes;  the 
other,  to  the  right  of  them,  had  not  been  hit,  and  we  saw 
him  galloping  off  across  the  plain,  six  or  eight  hundred 
yards  away.  A  couple  more  shots  missed,  and  we  mounted 
our  horses  to  try  to  ride  him  down.  The  plain  sloped 
gently  upward  for  three-quarters  of  a  mile  to  a  low  crest  or 
divide,  and  long  before  we  got  near  him  he  disappeared 
over  this.  Sir  Alfred  and  Kermit  were  tearing  along  in 
front  and  to  the  right,  with  Miss  Pease  close  behind;  while 
Tranquillity  carried  me,  as  fast  as  he  could,  on  the  left, 
with  Medlicott  near  me.  On  topping  the  divide  Sir  Al- 
fred and  Kermit  missed  the  lion,  which  had  swung  to  the 
left,  and  they  raced  ahead  too  far  to  the  right.  Medlicott 
and  I,  however,  saw  the  lion,  loping  along  close  behind  some 
kongoni;  and  this  enabled  me  to  get  up  to  him  as  quickly  as 
the  lighter  men  on  the  faster  horses.  The  going  was  now 
slightly  downhill,  and  the  sorrel  took  me  along  very  well, 
while  Medlicott,  whose  horse  was  slow,  bore  to  the  right 
and  joined  the  other  two  men.  We  gained  rapidly,  and, 
finding  out  this,  the  lion  suddenly  halted  and  came  to  bay 


86  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

in  a  slight  hollow,  where  the  grass  was  rather  long.  The 
plain  seemed  flat,  and  we  could  see  the  lion  well  from  horse- 
back; but,  especially  when  he  lay  down,  it  was  most  diffi- 
cult to  make  him  out  on  foot,  and  impossible  to  do  so  when 
kneeling. 

We  were  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the  lion, 
Sir  Alfred,  Kermit,  Medlicott,  and  Miss  Pease  off  to  one 
side,  and  slightly  above  him  on  the  slope,  while  I  was  on 
the  level,  about  equidistant  from  him  and  them.  Kermit 
and  I  tried  shooting  from  the  horses;  but  at  such  a  distance 
this  was  not  effective.  Then  Kermit  got  off,  but  his  horse 
would  not  let  him  shoot;  and  when  I  got  off  I  could  not 
make  out  the  animal  through  the  grass  with  sufficient 
distinctness  to  enable  me  to  take  aim.  Old  Ben  the  dog 
had  arrived,  and,  barking  loudly,  was  strolling  about  near 
the  lion,  which  paid  him  not  the  slightest  attention.  At 
this  moment  my  black  sais,  Simba,  came  running  up  to 
me  and  took  hold  of  the  bridle;  he  had  seen  the  chase 
from  the  line  of  march  and  had  cut  across  to  join  me. 
There  was  no  other  sais  or  gun-bearer  anywhere  near, 
and  his  action  was  plucky,  for  he  was  the  only  man 
afoot,  with  the  lion  at  bay.  Lady  Pease  had  also  ridden 
up  and  was  an  interested  spectator  only  some  fifty  yards 
behind  me. 

Now,  an  elderly  man  with  a  varied  past  which  includes 
rheumatism  does  not  vault  lightly  into  the  saddle;  as  his 
sons,  for  instance,  can;  and  I  had  already  made  up  my 
mind  that  in  the  event  of  the  lion's  charging  it  would  be 
wise  for  me  to  trust  to  straight  powder  rather  than  to  try  to 
scramble  into  the  saddle  and  get  under  way  in  time.  The 
arrival  of  my  two  companions  settled  matters.  I  was  not 
sure  of  the  speed  of  Lady  Pease's  horse;  and  Simba  was 
on  foot  and  it  was  of  course  out  of  the  question  for  me  to 
leave  him.  So  I  said,  ''Good,  Simba,  now  we'll  see  this 
thing  through,"  and  gentle-mannered  Simba  smiled  a  shy 
appreciation  of  my  tone,  though  he  could  not  understand 
the  words.    I  was  still  unable  to  see  the  lion  when  I  knelt, 


LION  HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS  87 

but  he  was  now  standing  up,  looking  first  at  one  group  of 
horses  and  then  at  the  other,  his  tail  lashing  to  and  fro,  his 
head  held  low,  and  his  lips  dropped  over  his  mouth  in 
peculiar  fashion,  while  his  harsh  and  savage  growling 
rolled  thunderously  over  the  plain.     Seeing  Simba  and  me 


"  Ben  "  worrying  the  second  big  lion  before  it  died,  and  when  we  were  afraid  it 

could  yet  charge 

From  a  photograph  by  Kertiiit  Roosevelt 

on  foot,  he  turned  toward  us,  his  tail  lashing  quicker  and 
quicker.  Resting  my  elbow  on  Simba's  bent  shoulder,  I 
took  steady  aim  and  pressed  the  trigger;  the  bullet  went 
in  between  the  neck  and  shoulder,  and  the  lion  fell  over 
on  his  side,  one  foreleg  in  the  air.  He  recovered  in  a  mo- 
ment and  stood  up,  evidently  very  sick,  and  once  more 
faced  me,  growling  hoarsely.     I  think  he  was  on  the  eve 


88  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

of  charging.  I  fired  again  at  once,  and  this  bullet  broke 
h'"s  back  just  behind  the  shoulders;  and  with  the  next  I 
killed  him  outright,  after  we  had  gathered  round  him. 

These  were  two  good-sized  maneless  lions;  and  very 
proud  of  them  I  was.  I  think  Sir  Alfred  was  at  least  as 
proud,  especially  because  we  had  performed  the  feat  alone, 
without  any  professional  hunters  being  present.  "We 
were  all  amateurs,  only  gentleman  riders  up,"  said  Sir 
Alfred.  It  was  late  before  we  got  the  lions  skinned.  Then 
we  set  off  toward  the  ranch,  two  porters  carrying  each  lion 
skin,  strapped  to  a  pole;  and  two  others  carrying  the  cub 
skins.  Night  fell  long  before  we  were  near  the  ranch;  but 
the  brilliant  tropic  moon  lighted  the  trail.  The  stalwart 
savages  who  carried  the  bloody  lion  skins  swung  along  at 
a  faster  walk  as  the  sun  went  down  and  the  moon  rose 
higher;  and  they  began  to  chant  in  unison,  one  uttering  a 
single  word  or  sentence,  and  the  others  joining  in  a  deep- 
toned,  musical  chorus.  The  men  on  a  safari,  and  indeed 
African  natives  generally,  are  always  excited  over  the  death 
of  a  lion,  and  the  hunting  tribes  then  chant  their  rough 
hunting  songs,  or  victory  songs,  until  the  monotonous, 
rhythmical  repetitions  make  them  grow  almost  frenzied. 
The  ride  home  through  the  moonlight,  the  vast  barren  land- 
scape shining  like  silver  on  either  hand,  was  one  to  be  re- 
membered; and  above  all,  the  sight  of  our  trophies  and  of 
their  wild  bearers. 

Three  days  later  we  had  another  successful  lion  hunt. 
Our  camp  was  pitched  at  a  waterhole  in  a  little  stream 
called  Potha,  by  a  hill  of  the  same  name.  Pease,  Medlicott, 
and  both  the  Hills  were  with  us,  and  Heller  came  too;  for 
he  liked,  when  possible,  to  be  with  the  hunters  so  that  he 
could  at  once  care  for  any  beast  that  was  shot.  As  the 
safari  was  stationary,  we  took  fifty  or  sixty  porters  as  beat- 
ers. It  was  thirteen  hours  before  we  got  into  camp  that 
evening.  The  Hills  had  with  them  as  beaters  and  water- 
carriers  half  a  dozen  of  the  Wakamba  who  were  working 
on  their  farm.     It  was  interesting  to  watch  these  naked 


LION  HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS 


89 


savages,  with  their  filed  teeth,  their  heads  shaved  in  curious 

patterns,    and    carrying   for   arms  httle  bows  and  arrows. 

Before  lunch  we  beat  a  long,  low  hill.     Harold  Hill  was 


Kermit  Roosevelt  and  cheetah  shot  by  him 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Hellei 


with  me;  Medlicott  and  Kermit  were  together.  We  placed 
ourselves,  one  couple  on  each  side  of  a  narrow  neck,  two- 
thirds  of  the  way  along  the  crest  of  the  hill;    and  soon 


90  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

after  we  were  in  position  we  heard  the  distant  shouts  of 
the  beaters  as  they  came  toward  us,  covering  the  crest  and 
the  tops  of  the  slopes  on  both  sides.  It  was  rather  dis- 
concerting to  find  how  much  better  Hill's  eyes  were  than 
mine.  He  saw  everything  first,  and  it  usually  took  some 
time  before  he  could  make  me  see  it.  In  this  first  drive 
nothing  came  my  way  except  some  mountain  reedbuck 
does,  at  which  I  did  not  shoot.  But  a  fine  male  cheetah 
came  to  Kermit,  and  he  bowled  it  over  in  good  style  as 
it  ran. 

Then  the  beaters  halted,  and  waited  before  resuming 
their  march  until  the  guns  had  gone  clear  round  and  es- 
tablished themselves  at  the  base  of  the  farther  end  of  the 
hill.  This  time  Kermit,  who  was  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards  from  me,  killed  a  reedbuck  and  a  steinbuck.  Sud- 
denly Hill  said,  "Lion,"  and  endeavored  to  point  it  out  to 
me,  as  it  crept  cautiously  among  the  rocks  on  the  steep 
hill-side,  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  away.  At  first  I  could 
not  see  it;  finally  I  thought  I  did  and  fired,  but,  as  it  proved, 
at  a  place  just  above  him.  However,  it  made  him  start 
up,  and  I  immediately  put  the  next  bullet  behind  his  shoul- 
ders; it  was  a  fatal  shot;  but,  growling,  he  struggled 
down  the  hill,  and  I  fired  again  and  killed  him.  It  was 
not  much  of  a  trophy,  however,  turning  out  to  be  a  half- 
grown  male. 

We  lunched  under  a  tree,  and  then  arranged  for  an- 
other beat.  There  was  a  long,  wide  valley,  or  rather  a  slight 
depression  in  the  ground — for  it  was  only  three  or  four  feet 
below  the  general  level — in  which  the  grass  grew  tall,  as 
the  soil  was  quite  wet.  It  was  the  scene  of  Percival's 
adventure  with  the  lion  that  chased  him.  Hill  and  I  sta- 
tioned ourselves  on  one  side  of  this  valley  or  depression, 
toward  the  upper  end;  Pease  took  Kermit  to  the  opposite 
side;  and  we  waited,  our  horses  some  distance  behind  us. 
The  beaters  were  put  in  at  the  lower  end,  formed  a  line 
across  the  valley,  and  beat  slowly  toward  us,  making  a 
great  noise. 


LION  HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS 


91 


They  were  still  some  distance  away  when  Hill  saw 
three  lions,  which  had  slunk  stealthily  off  ahead  of  them 
through  the  grass.  I  have  called  the  grass  tall,  but  this  was 
only  by  comparison  with  the  short  grass  of  the  dry  plains. 
In  the  depression  or  valley  it  was  some  three  feet  high.  In 
such  grass  a  lion,  which  is  marvellously  adept  at  hiding, 


The  third  male  lion  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  plwtograph  by  Ed/imnd  Heller 


can  easily  conceal  itself,  not  merely  when  lying  down,  but 
when  advancing  at  a  crouching  gait.  If  it  stands  erect, 
however,  it  can  be  seen. 

There  were  two  lions  near  us,  one  directly  in  our  front, 
a  hundred  and  ten  yards  off.  Some  seconds  passed  before 
Hill  could  make  me  realize  that  the  dim  yellow  smear  in 
the  yellow-brown  grass  was  a  lion;  and  then  I  found  such 
difficulty  in  getting  a  bead  on  him  that  I  overshot.  How- 
ever, the  bullet  must  have  passed  very  close — indeed, 
I  think  it  just  grazed  him — for  he  jumped  up  and  faced  us, 


92  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

growling  savagely.  Then,  his  head  lowered,  he  threw  his 
tail  straight  into  the  air  and  began  to  charge.  The  first 
few  steps  he  took  at  a  trot,  and  before  he  could  start  into  a 
gallop  I  put  the  soft-nosed  Winchester  bullet  in  between  the 
neck  and  shoulder.  Down  he  went  with  a  roar;  the  wound 
was  fatal,  but  I  was  taking  no  chances,  and  I  put  two  more 
bullets  in  him.  Then  we  walked  toward  where  Hill  had 
already  seen  another  lion — the  lioness,  as  it  proved.  Again 
he  had  some  difficulty  in  making  me  see  her;  but  he  suc- 
ceeded and  I  walked  toward  her  through  the  long  grass, 
repressing  the  zeal  of  my  two  gun-bearers,  who  were  stanch, 
but  who  showed  a  tendency  to  walk  a  little  ahead  of  me 
on  each  side,  instead  of  a  little  behind.  I  walked  toward 
her  because  I  could  not  kneel  to  shoot  in  grass  so  tall;  and 
when  shooting  off-hand  I  like  to  be  fairly  close,  so  as  to  be 
sure  that  my  bullets  go  in  the  right  place.  At  sixty  yards  I 
could  make  her  out  clearly,  snarling  at  me  as  she  faced  me; 
and  I  shot  her  full  in  the  chest.  She  at  once  performed  a 
series  of  extraordinary  antics,  tumbling  about  on  her  head, 
just  as  if  she  were  throwing  somersaults,  first  to  one  side 
and  then  to  the  other.  I  fired  again,  but  managed  to  shoot 
between  the  somersaults,  so  to  speak,  and  missed  her. 
The  shot  seemed  to  bring  her  to  herself,  and  away  she  tore; 
but  instead  of  charging  us  she  charged  the  line  of  beaters. 
She  was  dying  fast,  however,  and  in  her  weakness  failed 
to  catch  any  one;  and  she  sank  down  into  the  long  grass. 
Hill  and  I  advanced  to  look  her  up,  our  rifles  at  full  cock, 
and  the  gun-bearers  close  behind.  It  is  ticklish  work  to 
follow  a  wounded  lion  in  tall  grass,  and  we  walked  carefully, 
every  sense  on  the  alert.  We  passed  Heller,  who  had  been 
with  the  beaters.  He  spoke  to  us  with  an  amused  smile. 
His  only  weapon  was  a  pair  of  field-glasses,  but  he  always 
took  things  as  they  came,  with  entire  coolness,  and  to  be 
close  to  a  wounded  lioness  when  she  charged  merely  inter- 
ested him.  A  beater  came  running  up  and  pointed  toward 
where  he  had  seen  her,  and  we  walked  toward  the  place. 
At  thirty  yards  distance  Hill  pointed,  and,  eagerly  peering. 


LION  HUNTING   ON  THE   KAPITI  PLAINS  93 

I  made  out  the  form  of  the  Honess  showing  indistinctly 
through  the  grass.  She  was  half  crouching,  half  sitting,  her 
head  bent  down;  but  she  still  had  strength  to  do  mischief. 
She  saw  us,  but  before  she  could  turn  I  sent  a  bullet  through 
her  shoulders;  down  she  went,  and  was  dead  when  we 
walked  up.  A  cub  had  been  seen,  and  another  full-grown 
lion,  but  they  had  slunk  off  and  we  got  neither. 

This  was  a  full-grown,  but  young,  lioness  of  average 
size;  her  cubs  must  have  been  several  months  old.  We 
took  her  entire  to  camp  to  weigh;  she  weighed  two  hundred 
and  eighty-three  pounds.  The  first  lion,  which  we  had 
difficulty  in  finding,  as  there  were  no  identifying  marks  in 
the  plain  of  tall  grass,  was  a  good-sized  male,  weighing 
about  four  hundred  pounds,  but  not  yet  full-grown;  al- 
though he  was  probably  the  father  of  the  cubs. 

We  were  a  long  way  from  camp,  and,  after  beating  in 
vain  for  the  other  lion,  we  started  back;  it  was  after  night- 
fall before  we  saw  the  camp-fires.  It  was  two  hours  later 
before  the  porters  appeared,  bearing  on  poles  the  skin  of  the 
dead  lion,  and  the  lioness  entire.  The  moon  was  nearly  full, 
and  it  was  interesting  to  see  them  come  swinging  down  the 
trail  in  the  bright  silver  light,  chanting  in  deep  tones,  over 
and  over  again,  a  line  or  phrase  that  sounded  like: 

" Zou-zou-boule  ma  ja  guntai;  zou-zou-boule  ma  ja  guntai." 

Occasionally  they  would  interrupt  it  by  the  repetition  in 
unison,  at  short  intervals,  of  a  guttural  ejaculation,  sound- 
ing like  "huzlem."  They  marched  into  camp,  then  up 
and  down  the  lines,  before  the  rows  of  small  fires;  then, 
accompanied  by  all  the  rest  of  the  porters,  they  paraded  up 
to  the  big  fire  where  I  was  standing.  Here  they  stopped 
and  ended  the  ceremony  by  a  minute  or  two's  vigorous  dan- 
cing amid  singing  and  wild  shouting.  The  firelight  gleamed 
and  flickered  across  the  grim  dead  beasts,  and  the  shining 
eyes  and  black  features  of  the  excited  savages,  while  all 
around  the  moon  flooded  the  landscape  with  her  white  light. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ON  SAFARI.     RHINO  AND  GIRAFFE 

When  we  killed  the  last  lions  we  were  already  on  safari, 
and  the  camp  was  pitched  by  a  waterhole  on  the  Potha, 
a  half-dried  stream,  little  more  than  a  string  of  pools  and 
reedbeds,  winding  down  through  the  sun-scorched  plain. 
Next  morning  we  started  for  another  waterhole  at  the  rocky 
hill  of  Bondoni,  about  eight  miles  distant. 

Safari  life  is  very  pleasant,  and  also  very  picturesque. 
The  porters  are  strong,  patient,  good-humored  savages, 
with  something  childlike  about  them  that  makes  one  really 
fond  of  them.  Of  course,  like  all  savages  and  most  children, 
they  have  their  limitations,  and  in  dealing  with  them  firm- 
ness is  even  more  necessary  than  kindness;  but  the  man 
is  a  poor  creature  who  does  not  treat  them  with  kindness 
also,  and  I  am  rather  sorry  for  him  if  he  does  not  grow  to 
feel  for  them,  and  to  make  them  in  return  feel  for  him,  a  real 
and  friendly  liking.  They  are  subject  to  gusts  of  passion, 
and  they  are  now  and  then  guilty  of  grave  misdeeds  and 
shortcomings;  sometimes  for  no  conceivable  reason,  at  least 
from  the  white  man's  stand-point.  But  they  are  generally 
cheerful,  and  when  cheerful  are  always  amusing;  and  they 
work  hard,  if  the  white  man  is  able  to  combine  tact  and 
consideration  with  that  insistence  on  the  performance  of 
duty  the  lack  of  which  they  despise  as  weakness.  Any 
little  change  or  excitement  is  a  source  of  pleasure  to  them. 
When  the  march  is  over  they  sing;  and  after  two  or  three 
days  in  camp  they  will  not  only  sing,  but  dance  when  an- 
other march  is  to  begin.  Of  course  at  times  they  suffer 
greatly  from  thirst  and  hunger  and  fatigue,  and  at  times 
they  will  suddenly  grow  sullen  or  rebel  without  what  seems 
to  us  any  adequate  cause;    and  they  have  an  inconsequent 

94 


ON   SAFARI.    RHINO   AND   GIRAFFE  95 

type  of  mind  which  now  and  then  leads  them  to  commit 
folHes  all  the  more  exasperating  because  they  are  against 
their  own  interest  no  less  than  against  the  interest  of  their 
employer.  But  they  do  well  on  the  whole,  and  safari  life 
is  attractive  to  them.  They  are  fed  well;  the  government 
requires  that  they  be  fitted  with  suitable  clothes  and  given 
small  tents,  so  that  they  are  better  clad  and  sheltered  than 
they  would  be  otherwise;  and  their  wages  represent  money 
which  they  could  get  in  no  other  way.     The  safari  repre- 


^.m^^mm^^ 


The  caravan  on  safari  at  Potha 

In  single  file  came  the  long  line  of  burden-bearers 

Frojn  a  photograph  by  Kennii  Roosevelt 


sents  a  great  advantage  to  the  porter;   who  in  his  turn  alone 
makes  the  safari  possible. 

When  we  were  to  march,  camp  was  broken  as  early  In 
the  day  as  possible.  Each  man  had  his  allotted  task,  and 
the  tents,  bedding,  provisions,  and  all  else  were  expeditiously 
made  into  suitable  packages.  Each  porter  is  supposed 
to  carry  from  fifty-five  to  sixty  pounds,  which  may  all  be 
in  one  bundle  or  in  two  or  three.  The  American  flag,  which 
flew  over  my  tent,  was  a  matter  of  much  pride  to  the  por- 
ters, and  was  always  carried  at  the  head  or  near  the  head 
of  the  line  of  march;  and  after  it  in  single  file  came  the 
long  line  of  burden-bearers.  As  they  started,  some  of  them 
would  blow  on  horns  or  whistles  and  others  beat  little 
tomtoms;  and  at  intervals  this  would  be  renewed  again  and 
again  throughout  the  march;  or  the  men  might  suddenly 
begin  to  chant,  or  merely  to  keep  repeating  in  unison  some 


96 


AFRICAN   GA^IE  TRAILS 


one  word  or  one  phrase  which,  when  we  asked  to  have  it 
translated,  might  or  might  not  prove  to  be  entirely  mean- 
ingless. The  headmen  carried  no  burdens,  and  the  tent 
boys  hardly  anything,  while  the  saises  walked  with  the 
spare  horses.  In  addition  to  the  canonical  and  required 
costume  of  blouse  or  jersey  and  drawers,  each  porter  wore 
a  blanket,  and  usually  something  else  to  which  his  soul 
inclined.  It  might  be  an  exceedingly  shabby  coat;  it  might 
be,  of  all  things  in  the  world,  an  umbrella,  an  article  for 


The  American  flag  was  always  at  the  head  or  near  the  head  of  the  line  of  march 

The  caravan  on  safari  at  Potha 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 

which  they  had  a  special  attachment.  Often  I  v\^ould  see 
a  porter,  who  thought  nothing  whatever  of  walking  for 
hours  at  mid-day  under  the  equatorial  sun  with  his  head 
bare,  trudging  along  with  solemn  pride  either  under  an 
open  umbrella,  or  carrying  the  umbrella  (tied  much  like 
Mrs.  Gamp's)  in  one  hand,  as  a  wand  of  dignity.  Then 
their  head-gear  varied  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Normally  it  was  a  red  fez,  a  kind  of  cap  only  used 
in  hot  climates,  and  exquisitely  designed  to  be  useless 
therein  because  it  gives  absolutely  no  protection  from  the 
sun.  But  one  would  wear  a  skin  cap;  another  would  sud- 
denly put  one  or  more  long  feathers  in  his  fez;  and  another, 
discarding  the  fez,  would  revert  to  some  purely  savage 
head-dress  which  he  would  wear  with  equal  gravity  whether 
it  were,  in  our  eyes,  really  decorative  or  merely  comic.  One 
such  head-dress,  for  instance,  consisted  of  the  skin  of  the 


98  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

top  of  a  zebra's  head,  with  the  two  ears.  Another  was 
made  of  the  skins  of  squirrels,  with  the  tails  both  sticking 
up  and  hanging  down.  Another  consisted  of  a  bunch  of 
feathers  woven  into  the  hair,  which  itself  was  pulled  out 
into  strings  that  were  stiffened  with  clay.  Another  was 
really  too  intricate  for  description  because  it  included  the 
man's  natural  hair,  some  strips  of  skin,  and  an  empty 
tin  can. 

If  it  were  a  long  journey  and  we  broke  it  by  a  noonday 
halt,  or  if  it  were  a  short  journey  and  we  reached  camp 
ahead  of  the  safari,  it  was  interesting  to  see  the  long  file 
of  men  approach.  Here  and  there,  leading  the  porters, 
scattered  through  the  line,  or  walking  alongside,  vv^ere  the 
askaris,  the  rifle-bearing  soldiers.  They  were  not  marks- 
men, to  put  it  mildly,  and  I  should  not  have  regarded  them 
as  particularly  efficient  allies  in  a  serious  fight;  but  they 
were  excellent  for  police  duty  in  camp,  and  were  also  of  use 
in  preventing  collisions  with  the  natives.  After  the  leading 
askaris  might  come  one  of  the  headmen;  one  of  whom, 
by  the  way,  looked  exactly  like  a  Semitic  negro,  and  always 
travelled  with  a  large  dirty-white  umbrella  in  one  hand; 
while  another,  a  tall,  powerful  fellow,  was  a  mission  boy 
who  spoke  good  English;  I  mention  his  being  a  mission 
boy  because  it  is  so  frequently  asserted  that  mission  boys 
never  turn  out  well.  Then  would  come  the  man  with  the 
flag,  followed  by  another  blowing  on  an  antelope  horn,  or 
perhaps  beating  an  empty  can  as  a  drum;  and  then  the 
long  line  of  men,  some  carrying  their  loads  on  their  heads, 
others  on  their  shoulders,  others,  in  a  very  few  cases,  on 
their  backs.  As  they  approached  the  halting  place  their 
spirits  rose,  the  whistles  and  horns  were  blown,  and  the 
improvised  drums  beaten,  and  perhaps  the  whole  line  would 
burst  into  a  chant. 

On  reaching  the  camping  ground  each  man  at  once  set 
about  his  allotted  task,  and  the  tents  were  quickly  pitched 
and  the  camp  put  in  order,  while  water  and  firewood  were 
fetched.     The  tents  were  pitched  in  long  lines,  in  the  first 


ON  SAFARI.    RHINO  AND  GIRAFFE  99 

of  which  stood  my  tent,  flanked  by  those  of  the  other  white 
men  and  by  the  dining  tent.  In  the  next  Hne  were  the  cook 
tent,  the  provision  tent,  the  store  tent,  the  skinning  tent, 
and  the  hke;  and  then  came  the  Hnes  of  small  white  tents 
for  the  porters.  Between  each  row  of  tents  was  a  broad 
street.  In  front  of  our  own  tents  in  the  first  line  an  askari 
was  always  pacing  to  and  fro;  and  when  night  fell  we 
would  kindle  a  camp-fire  and  sit  around  it  under  the  stars. 
Before  each  of  the  porters'  tents  was  a  little  fire,  and  be- 
side it  stood  the  pots  and  pans  in  which  the  porters  did  their 
cooking.  Here  and  there  were  larger  fires,  around  which 
the  gun-bearers  or  a  group  of  askaris  or  of  saises  might 
gather.  After  nightfall  the  multitude  of  fires  lit  up  the 
darkness  and  showed  the  tents  in  shadowy  outline;  and 
around  them  squatted  the  porters,  their  faces  flickering 
from  dusk  to  ruddy  light,  as  they  chatted  together  or  sud- 
denly started  some  snatch  of  wild  African  melody  in  which 
all  their  neighbors  might  join.  After  a  while  the  talk  and 
laughter  and  singing  would  gradually  die  away,  and  as  we 
white  men  sat  around  our  fire,  the  silence  would  be  un- 
broken except  by  the  queer  cry  of  a  hyena,  or  much  more 
rarely  by  a  sound  that  always  demanded  attention — the 
yawning  grunt  of  a  questing  lion. 

If  we  wished  to  make  an  early  start  we  would  breakfast 
by  dawn  and  then  we  often  returned  to  camp  for  lunch. 
Otherwise  we  would  usually  be  absent  all  day,  carrying 
our  lunch  with  us.  We  might  get  in  before  sunset  or  we 
might  be  out  till  long  after  nightfall;  and  then  the  gleam 
of  the  lit  fires  was  a  welcome  sight  as  we  stumbled  toward 
them  through  the  darkness.  Once  in,  each  went  to  his 
tent  to  take  a  hot  bath;  and  then,  clean  and  refreshed,  we 
sat  down  to  a  comfortable  dinner,  with  game  of  some  sort 
as  the  principal  dish. 

On  the  first  march  after  leaving  our  lion  camp  at  Potha 
I  shot  a  wart-hog.  It  was  a  good-sized  sow,  which,  in  com- 
pany with  several  of  her  half-grown  offspring,  was  grazing 
near  our  line  of  march;   there  were  some  thorn-trees  which 


100 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


gave  a  little  cover,  and  I  killed  her  at  a  hundred  and  eighty 
yards,  using  the  Springfield,  the  lightest  and  handiest  of  all 
my  rifles.  Her  flesh  was  good  to  eat,  and  the  skin,  as  with 
all  our  specimens,  was  saved  for  the  National  Museum. 
I  did  not  again  have  to  shoot  a  sow,  although  I  kiUed  half- 
grown  pigs  for  the  table,  and  boars  for  specimens.  This 
sow  and  her  porkers  were  not  rooting,  but  were  grazing 


-  "      -  Making  camp  at  Bondoni 

From  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 

as  if  they  had  been  antelope;  her  stomach  contained  noth- 
ing but  chopped  green  grass.  Wart-hogs  are  common 
throughout  the  country  over  which  we  hunted.  They  are 
hideous  beasts,  with  strange  protuberances  on  their  cheeks; 
and  when  alarmed  they  trot  or  gallop  away,  holding  the 
tail  perfectly  erect  with  the  tassel  bent  forward.  Usuafly 
they  are  seen  in  family  parties,  but  a  big  boar  will  often  be 
alone.  They  often  root  up  the  ground,  but  the  stomachs  of 
those  we  shot  were  commonly  filled  with  nothing  but  grass. 


ON   SAFARI.     RHINO   AND   GIRAFFE  101 

If  the  weather  is  cloudy  or  wet  they  may  be  out  all  day 
long,  but  In  hot,  dry  weather  we  generally  found  them 
abroad  only  in  the  morning  and  evening.  A  pig  is  always 
a  comical  animal;  even  more  so  than  is  the  case  with  a 
bear,  which  also  impresses  one  with  a  sense  of  grotesque 
humor — and  this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  both  boar 
and  bear  may  be  very  formidable  creatures.  A  wart-hog 
standing  alertly  at  gaze,  head  and  tail  up,  legs  straddled 
out,  and  ears  cocked  forward,  is  rather  a  figure  of  fun; 
and  not  the  less  so  when  with  characteristic  suddenness  he 
bounces  round  with  a  grunt  and  scuttles  madly  off  to  safety. 
Wart-hogs  are  beasts  of  the  bare  plain  or  open  forest,  and 
though  they  will  often  lie  up  in  patches  of  brush  they  do 
not  care  for  thick  timber. 

After  shooting  the  wart-hog  we  marched  on  to  our 
camp  at  Bondoni.  The  gun-bearers  were  Mohammedans, 
and  the  dead  pig  was  of  no  service  to  them;  and  at  their 
request  I  walked  out  while  camp  was  being  pitched  and 
shot  them  a  buck;  this  I  had  to  do  now  and  then,  but  I 
always  shot  males,  so  as  not  to  damage  the  species. 

Next  day  we  marched  to  the  foot  of  Kilimakiu  Moun- 
tain, near  Captain  Slatter's  ostrich-farm.  Our  route  lay 
across  bare  plains  thickly  covered  with  withered  short  grass. 
All  around  us  as  we  marched  were  the  game  herds,  zebras 
and  hartebeests,  gazelles  of  the  two  kinds,  and  now  and 
then  wildebeests.  Hither  and  thither  over  the  plain,  cross- 
ing and  recrossing,  ran  the  dusty  game  trails,  each  with 
its  myriad  hoof-marks;  the  round  hoof-prints  of  the  zebra, 
the  heart-shaped  marks  that  showed  where  the  hartebeest 
herd  had  trod,  and  the  delicate  etching  that  betrayed  where 
the  smaller  antelope  had  passed.  Occasionally  we  crossed 
the  trails  of  the  natives,  worn  deep  in  the  hard  soil  by  the 
countless  thousands  of  bare  or  sandalled  feet  that  had 
trodden  them.  Africa  is  a  country  of  trails.  Across  the 
high  veldt,  in  every  direction,  run  the  tangled  trails  of  the 
multitudes  of  game  that  have  lived  thereon  from  time  im- 
memorial.    The  great  beasts  of  the  marsh  and  the  forest 


lOS 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


made  therein  broad  and  muddy  trails  which  often  offer 
the  only  pathway  by  which  a  man  can  enter  the  sombre 
depths.  In  wet  ground  and  dry  alike  are  also  found  the 
trails  of  savage  man.  They  lead  from  village  to  village, 
and  in  places  they  stretch  for  hundreds  of  miles,  where 
trading  parties  have  worn  them  in  the  search  for  ivory,  or 

in  the  old  days  when 
raiding  or  purchas- 
ing slaves.  The  trails 
made  by  the  men  are 
made  much  as  the 
beasts  make  theirs. 
They  are  generally 
longer  and  better  de- 
fined^ although  I  have 
seen  hippo  tracks 
more  deeply  marked 
than  any  made  by 
savage  man.  But  they 
are  made  simply  by 
men  following  in  one 
another's  footsteps, 
and  they  are  never 
quite  straight.  They 
bend  now  a  little  to 
one  side,  now  a  little 
to  the  other,  and  sud- 
den loops  mark  the 
spot  where  some  van- 
ished obstacle  once 
stood;  around  it  the  first  trail-makers  went,  and  their  suc- 
cessors have  ever  trodden  in  their  footsteps,  even  though 
the  need  for  so  doing  has  long  passed  away. 

Our  camp  at  Kilimakiu  was  by  a  grove  of  shady  trees, 
and  from  it  at  sunset  we  looked  across  the  vast  plain  and 
saw  the  far-off  mountains  grow  umber  and  purple  as  the 
light  waned.     Back  of  the  camp,  and  of  the  farm-house 


A  tribe  of  the  Wakamba  with  their  chief  (in  khaki  with 
a  golf  cap)  that  came  to  present  iVIr.  Roosevelt  with 
a  sheep  near  Kilimakiu 

From  a  photograph  by  Kjriiiit  Roosevelt 


ON  SAFARI.    RHINO  AND   GIRAFFE  103 

near  which  we  were,  rose  KiHmakiu  Mountain,  beautifully 
studded  with  groves  of  trees  of  many  kinds.  On  its  farther 
side  lived  a  tribe  of  the  Wakamba.  Their  chief  with  all  the 
leading  men  of  his  village  came  in  state  to  call  upon  me, 
and  presented  me  with  a  fat  hairy  sheep,  of  the  ordinary 
kind  found  in  this  part  of  Africa,  where  the  sheep  very 
wisely  do  not  grow  wool.  The  headman  was  dressed  in 
khaki,  and  showed  me  with  pride  an  official  document 
which  confirmed  him  in  his  position  by  direction  of  the 
government,  and  required  him  to  perform  various  acts, 
chiefly  in  the  way  of  preventing  his  tribes-people  from 
committing  robbery  or  murder,  and  of  helping  to  stamp 
out  cattle  disease.  Like  all  the  Wakamba  they  had  flocks 
of  goats  and  sheep,  and  herds  of  humped  cattle;  but  they 
were  much  in  need  of  meat  and  hailed  my  advent.  They 
were  wild  savages  with  filed  teeth,  many  of  them  stark 
naked,  though  some  of  them  carried  a  blanket.  Their 
heads  were  curiously  shaved  so  that  the  hair  tufts  stood  out 
in  odd  patterns,  and  they  carried  small  bows,  and  arrows 
with  poisoned  heads. 

The  following  morning  I  rode  out  with  Captain  Slatter. 
We  kept  among  the  hills.  The  long  drought  was  still  un- 
broken. The  little  pools  were  dry  and  their  bottoms  baked 
like  iron,  and  there  was  not  a  drop  in  the  watercourses. 
Part  of  the  land  was  open  and  part  covered  with  a  thin 
forest  or  bush  of  scattered  mimosa-trees.  In  the  open 
country  were  many  zebras  and  hartebeests,  and  the  latter 
were  found  even  in  the  thin  bush.  In  the  morning  we  found 
a  small  herd  of  eland  at  which,  after  some  stalking,  I  got  a 
long  shot  and  missed.  The  eland  is  the  largest  of  all  the 
horned  creatures  that  are  called  antelope,  being  quite  as 
heavy  as  a  fattened  ox.  The  herd  I  approached  consisted 
of  a  dozen  individuals,  two  of  them  huge  bulls,  their  coats 
having  turned  a  slaty  blue,  their  great  dewlaps  hanging 
down,  and  the  legs  looking  almost  too  small  for  the  massive 
bodies.  The  reddish-colored  cows  were  of  far  lighter  build. 
Eland  are  beautiful  creatures  and  ought  to  be  domesticated. 


104  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

As  I  crept  toward  them  I  was  struck  by  their  Hkeness  to 
great,  clean,  handsome  cattle.  They  were  grazing  or  rest- 
ing, switching  their  long  tails  at  the  flies  that  hung  in 
attendance  upon  them  and  lit  on  their  flanks,  just  as  if  they 
were  Jerseys  in  a  field  at  home.  My  bullet  fell  short,  their 
size  causing  me  to  underestimate  the  distance,  and  away 
they  went  at  a  run,  one  or  two  of  the  cows  in  the  first  hurry 
and  confusion  skipping  clean  over  the  backs  of  others  that 
got  in  their  way — a  most  unexpected  example  of  agility  in 
such  large  and  ponderous  animals.  After  a  few  hundred 
yards  they  settled  down  to  the  slashing  trot  which  is  their 
natural  gait,  and  disappeared  over  the  brow  of  a  hill. 

The  morning  was  a  blank,  but  early  in  the  afternoon 
we  saw  the  eland  herd  again.  They  were  around  a  tree  in 
an  open  space,  and  we  could  not  get  near  them.  But  in- 
stead of  going  straight  away  they  struck  off  to  the  right  and 
described  almost  a  semicircle,  and  though  they  were  over 
four  hundred  yards  distant,  they  were  such  big  creatures  and 
their  gait  was  so  steady  that  I  felt  warranted  in  shooting. 
On  the  dry  plain  I  could  mark  where  my  bullets  fell,  and 
though  I  could  not  get  a  good  chance  at  the  bull  I  finally 
downed  a  fine  cow;  and  by  pacing  I  found  it  to  be  a  little 
over  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  where  I  stood  when  shooting. 

It  was  about  nine  miles  from  camp,  and  I  dared  not 
leave  the  eland  alone,  so  I  stationed  one  of  the  gun-bearers 
by  the  great  carcass  and  sent  a  messenger  in  to  Heller,  on 
whom  we  depended  for  preserving  the  skins  of  the  big 
game.  Hardly  had  this  been  done  when  a  Wakamba  man 
came  running  up  to  tell  us  that  there  was  a  rhinoceros  on 
the  hill-side  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away,  and  that  he  had 
left  a  companion  to  watch  it  while  he  carried  us  the  news. 
Slatter  and  I  immediately  rode  in  the  direction  given,  fol- 
lowing our  wild-looking  guide;  the  other  gun-bearer  trotting 
after  us.  In  five  minutes  we  had  reached  the  opposite  hill- 
crest,  where  the  watcher  stood,  and  he  at  once  pointed  out 
the  rhino.  The  huge  beast  was  standing  in  entirely  open 
country,  although  there  were  a  few  scattered  trees  of  no 


ON  SAFARI.     RHINO   AND   GIRAFFE 


10.5 


great  size  at  some  little  distance  from  him.  We  left  our 
horses  in  a  dip  of  the  ground  and  began  the  approach; 
I  cannot  say  that  we  stalked  him,  for  the  approach  was  too 
easy.  The  wind  blew  from  him  to  us,  and  a  rhino's  eyesight 
is  dull.  Thirty  yards  from  where  he  stood  was  a  bush  four 
or  five  feet  high,  and  though  it  was  so  thin  that  we  could 


Skinning  the  eland 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  HcUer 

distinctly  see  him  through  the  leaves,  it  shielded  us  from 
the  vision  of  his  small,  piglike  eyes  as  we  advanced  toward 
it,  stooping  and  in  single  file,  I  leading.  The  big  beast 
stood  like  an  uncouth  statue,  his  hide  black  in  the  sun- 
light; he  seemed  what  he  was,  a  monster  surviving  over 
from  the  world's  past,  from  the  days  when  the  beasts  of 
the  prime  ran  riot  in  their  strength,  before  man  grew  so 
cunning  of  brain  and  hand  as  to  master  them.  So  little 
did  he  dream  of  our  presence  that  when  we  were  a  hundred 
yards  off  he  actually  lay  down. 


106  AFRICAN   GAJNIE  TRAILS 

Walking  lightly,  and  with  every  sense  keyed  up,  we 
at  last  reached  the  bush,  and  I  pushed  forward  the  safety 
of  the  double-barrelled  Holland  rifle  which  I  was  now  to 
use  for  the  first  time  on  big  game.  As  I  stepped  to  one  side 
of  the  bush  so  as  to  get  a  clear  aim,  with  Slatter  following, 
the  rhino  saw  me  and  jumped  to  his  feet  with  the  agility  of 
a  polo  pony.  As  he  rose  I  put  in  the  right  barrel,  the  bullet 
going  through  both  lungs.  At  the  same  moment  he  wheeled, 
the  blood  spouting  from  his  nostrils,  and  galloped  full  on 
us.  Before  he  could  get  quite  all  the  way  round  in  his  head- 
long rush  to  reach  us,  I  struck  him  with  my  left-hand 
barrel,  the  bullet  entering  between  the  neck  and  shoulder 
and  piercing  his  heart.  At  the  same  Instant  Captain  Slatter 
fired,  his  bullet  entering  the  neck  vertebrae.  Ploughing  up 
the  ground  with  horn  and  feet,  the  great  bull  rhino,  still 
head  toward  us,  dropped  just  thirteen  paces  from  where 
we  stood. 

This  was  a  wicked  charge,  for  the  rhino  meant  mischief 
and  came  on  with  the  utmost  determination.  It  is  not  safe 
to  generalize  from  a  few  Instances.  Judging  from  what  I 
have  since  seen^  I  am  Inclined  to  believe  that  both  lion  and 
buffalo  are  more  dangerous  game  than  rhino;  yet  the  first 
two  rhinos  I  met  both  charged,  whereas  we  killed  our  first 
four  lions  and  first  four  buffaloes  without  any  of  them 
charging,  though  two  of  each  were  stopped  as  they  were 
on  the  point  of  charging.  Moreover,  our  experience  with 
this  bull  rhino  Illustrates  what  I  have  already  said  as  to  one 
animal  being  more  dangerous  under  certain  conditions,  and 
another  more  dangerous  under  different  conditions.  If  it 
had  been  a  lion  Instead  of  a  rhino,  my  first  bullet  would, 
I  believe,  have  knocked  all  the  charge  out  of  It;  but  the 
vitality  of  the  huge  pachyderm  was  so  great,  its  mere  bulk 
counted  for  so  much,  that  even  such  a  hard-hitting  rifle  as 
my  double  Holland — than  which  I  do  not  believe  there 
exists  a  better  weapon  for  heavy  game — could  not  stop 
it  outright,  although  either  of  the  wounds  inflicted  would 
have  been  fatal  in  a  few  seconds. 


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ON  SAFARI.     RHINO   AND   GIRAFFE  109 

Leaving  a  couple  of  men  with  the  dead  rhino,  to  protect 
it  from  the  Wakamba  by  day  and  the  Hons  by  night,  we  rode 
straight  to  camp,  which  we  reached  at  sunset.  It  was 
necessary  to  get  to  work  on  the  two  dead  beasts  as  soon 
as  possible  in  order  to  be  sure  of  preserving  their  skins. 
Heller  was  the  man  to  be  counted  on  for  this  task.  He  it 
was  who  handled  all  the  skins,  who,  in  other  words,  was 
making  the  expedition  of  permanent  value  so  far  as  big 
game  was  concerned;  and  no  work  at  any  hour  of  the  day 
or  night  ever  came  amiss  to  him.  He  had  already  trained 
eight  Wakamba  porters  to  act  as  skinners  under  his  super- 
vision. On  hearing  of  our  success,  he  at  once  said  that  we 
ought  to  march  out  to  the  game  that  night  so  as  to  get  to 
work  by  daylight.  Moreover,  we  were  not  comfortable  at 
leaving  only  two  men  with  each  carcass,  for  lions  were  both 
bold  and  plentiful. 

The  moon  rose  at  eight  and  we  started  as  soon  as  she 
was  above  the  horizon.  We  did  not  take  the  horses,  be- 
cause there  was  no  water  where  we  were  going,  and  fur- 
thermore we  did  not  like  to  expose  them  to  a  possible  attack 
by  lions.  The  march  out  by  moonlight  was  good  fun,  for 
though  I  had  been  out  all  day,  I  had  been  riding,  not  walk- 
ing, and  so  was  not  tired.  A  hundred  porters  went  with  us 
so  as  to  enable  us  to  do  the  work  quickly  and  bring  back 
to  camp  the  skins  and  all  the  meat  needed,  and  these  por- 
ters carried  water,  food  for  breakfast,  and  what  little  was 
necessary  for  a  one-night  camp.  We  tramped  along  in  sin- 
gle file  under  the  moonlight,  up  and  down  the  hills,  and 
through  the  scattered  thorn  forest.  Kermit  and  Medlicott 
went  first,  and  struck  such  a  pace  that  after  an  hour  we  had 
to  halt  them  so  as  to  let  the  tail  end  of  the  file  of  porters 
catch  up.  Then  Captain  Slatter  and  I  set  a  more  deco- 
rous pace,  keeping  the  porters  closed  up  in  line  behind  us. 
In  another  hour  we  began  to  go  down  a  long  slope  toward 
a  pin-point  of  light  in  the  distance  which  we  knew  was  the 
fire  by  the  rhinoceros.  The  porters,  like  the  big  children  they 
were,  felt  in  high  feather,  and  began  to  chant  to  an  accom- 


110  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

panlment  of  whistling  and  horn-blowing  as  we  tramped 
through  the  dry  grass  which  was  flooded  with  silver  by  the 
moon,  now  high  in  the  heavens. 

As  soon  as  we  reached  the  rhino,  Heller  with  his 
Wakamba  skinners  pushed  forward  the  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  to  the  eland^  returning  after  midnight  with  the  skin 
and  all  the  best  parts  of  the  meat. 

Around  the  dead  rhino  the  scene  was  lit  up  both  by  the 
moon  and  by  the  flicker  of  the  fires.  The  porters  made 
their  camp  under  a  small  tree  a  dozen  rods  to  one  side  of 
the  carcasS;,  building  a  low  circular  fence  of  branches  on 
which  they  hung  their  bright-colored  blankets^  two  or 
three  big  fires  blazing  to  keep  off^  possible  lions.  Half  as 
far  on  the  other  side  of  the  rhino  a  party  of  naked  savages 
had  established  their  camp,  if  camp  it  could  be  called, 
for  really  all  they  did  was  to  squat  down  round  a  couple 
of  fires  with  a  few  small  bushes  disposed  round  about. 
The  rhino  had  been  opened,  and  they  had  already  taken 
out  of  the  carcass  what  they  regarded  as  titbits  and  what 
we  certainly  did  not  grudge  them.  Between  the  two  camps 
lay  the  huge  dead  beast,  his  hide  glistening  in  the  moon- 
light. In  each  camp  the  men  squatted  around  the  fires 
chatting  and  laughing  as  they  roasted  strips  of  meat  on 
long  sticks,  the  fitful  blaze  playing  over  them,  now  leaving 
them  in  darkness,  now  bringing  them  out  into  a  red  relief. 
Our  own  tent  was  pitched  under  another  tree  a  hundred 
yards  ofl^,  and  when  I  went  to  sleep,  I  could  still  hear  the 
drumming  and  chanting  of  our  feasting  porters;  the  sav- 
ages were  less  at  ease,  and  their  revel  was  quiet. 

Early  next  morning  I  went  back  to  camp,  and  soon  after 
reaching  there  again  started  out  for  a  hunt.  In  the  after- 
noon I  came  on  giraff^es  and  got  up  near  enough  to  shoot  at 
them.  But  they  are  such  enormous  beasts  that  I  thought 
them  far  nearer  than  they  were.  My  bullet  fell  short,  and 
they  disappeared  among  the  mimosas,  at  their  strange 
leisurely  looking  gallop.  Of  all  the  beasts  in  an  African 
landscape  none  is  more  striking  than  the  giraffe.    Usually 


112  AFRia\N   GA^IE   TRAILS 

it  is  found  in  small  parties  or  in  herds  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
or  more  individuals.  Although  it  will  drink  regularly  if 
occasion  offers,  it  is  able  to  get  along  without  water  for 
months  at  a  time,  and  frequents  by  choice  the  dry  plains  or 
else  the  stretches  of  open  forest  where  the  trees  are  scattered 
and  ordinarily  somewhat  stunted.  Like  the  rhinoceros — 
the  ordinary  or  prehensile-lipped  rhinoceros — the  giraffe  is 
a  browsing  and  not  a  grazing  animal.  The  leaves,  buds, 
and  twigs  of  the  mimosas  or  thorn-trees  form  its  customary 
food.  Its  extraordinary  height  enables  it  to  bring  into  play 
to  the  best  possible  advantage  its  noteworthy  powers  of 
vision,  and  no  animal  is  harder  to  approach  unseen.  Again 
and  again  I  have  made  it  out  a  mile  off  or  rather  have  seen 
it  a  mile  off  when  it  was  pointed  out  to  me,  and  looking  at 
it  through  my  glasses,  would  see  that  it  was  gazing  steadily 
at  us.  It  is  a  striking-looking  animal  and  handsome  in  its 
way,  but  its  length  of  leg  and  neck  and  sloping  back  make 
it  appear  awkward  even  at  rest.  When  alarmed  it  may 
go  off  at  a  long  swinging  pace  or  walk,  but  if  really  fright- 
ened it  strikes  into  a  peculiar  gallop  or  canter.  The  tail  is 
cocked  and  twisted,  and  the  huge  hind  legs  are  thrown 
forward  well  to  the  outside  of  the  forelegs.  The  movements 
seem  deliberate  and  the  giraffe  does  not  appear  to  be  going 
at  a  fast  pace,  but  if  it  has  any  start  a  horse  must  gallop 
hard  to  overtake  it.  When  it  starts  on  this  gait,  the  neck 
may  be  dropped  forward  at  a  sharp  angle  with  the  straight 
line  of  the  deep  chest,  and  the  big  head  is  thrust  in  advance. 
They  are  defenceless  things  and,  though  they  may  kick 
at  a  man  who  incautiously  comes  within  reach,  they  are  in 
no  way  dangerous. 

The  following  day  I  again  rode  out  with  Captain  Slat- 
ter.  During  the  morning  we  saw  nothing  except  the  ordi- 
nary game,  and  we  lunched  on  a  hill-top,  ten  miles  distant 
from  camp,  under  a  huge  fig-tree  with  spreading  branches 
and  thick,  deep -green  foliage.  Throughout  the  time  we 
were  taking  lunch  a  herd  of  zebras  watched  us  from  near 
by,  standing  motionless  with  their  ears   pricked   forward. 


ON   SAFARI.    RHINO   AND   GIRAFFE 


113 


their  beautifully  striped  bodies  showing  finely  in  the  sun- 
light. We  scanned  the  country  round  about  with  our 
glasses,  and  made  out  first  a  herd  of  elands,  a  mile  in 
our  rear,  and  then  three  giraffes  a  mile  and  a  half  in  our 
front.  I  wanted  a  bull  eland,  but  I  wanted  a  giraffe  still 
more,  and  we  mounted 
our  horses  and  rode  tow- 
ard where  the  three  tall 
beasts  stood,  on  an  open 
hill-side  with  trees  thinly 
scattered  over  it.  Half  a 
mile  from  them  we  left 
the  horses  in  a  thick  belt 
of  timber  beside  a  dry 
watercourse,  and  went 
forward  on  foot. 

There  was  no  use  in 
trying  a  stalk,  for  that 
would  merely  have 
aroused  the  giraffe's  sus- 
picion. But  we  knew 
they  were  accustomed  to 
the  passing  and  repassing 
of  Wakamba  men  and 
women,  whom  they  did 
not  fear  if  they  kept  at 
a  reasonable  distance,  so 
we  walked  in  single  file 
diagonally  in  their  direc- 
tion; that  is,  toward  a  tree  which  I  judged  to  be  about 
three  hundred  yards  from  them.  I  was  carrying  the  Win- 
chester loaded  with  full  metal-patched  bullets.  I  wished  to 
get  for  the  museum  both  a  bull  and  a  cow.  One  of  the 
three  giraffes  was  much  larger  than  the  other  two,  and  as 
he  was  evidently  a  bull  I  thought  the  two  others  were  cows. 

As  we  reached  the  tree  the  giraffes  showed  symptoms 
of  uneasiness.    One  of  the  smaller  ones  began  to  make  off, 


Masai  Elmoran,  Alachakos  road  station 
From  a  photograph  by  EdmutiO,  Hello 


114  AFRICAN   GA]\IE  TRAILS 

and  both  the  others  shifted  their  positions  slightly,  curling 
their  tails.  I  instantly  dropped  on  my  knee,  and  getting  the 
bead  just  behind  the  big  bull's  shoulder,  I  fired  with  the 
three-hundred-yard  sight.  I  heard  the  "pack"  of  the  bullet 
as  it  struck  just  where  I  aimed;  and  away  went  all  three 
giraffes  at  their  queer  rocking-horse  canter.  Running  for- 
ward I  emptied  my  magazine,  firing  at  the  big  bull  and  also 
at  one  of  his  smaller  companions,  and  then,  slipping  into 
the  barrel  what  proved  to  be  a  soft-nosed  bullet,  I  fired  at 
the  latter  again.  The  giraffe  was  going  straightaway  and 
it  was  a  long  shot,  at  four  or  five  hundred  yards;  but  by 
good  luck  the  bullet  broke  its  back  and  down  it  came. 
The  others  were  now  getting  over  the  crest  of  the  hill, 
but  the  big  one  was  evidently  sick,  and  we  called  and 
beckoned  to  the  two  saises  to  hurry  up  with  the  horses. 
The  moment  they  arrived  we  jumped  on,  and  Captain 
Slatter  cantered  up  a  neighboring  hill  so  as  to  mark  the 
direction  in  which  the  giraffes  went  if  I  lost  sight  of  them. 
Meanwhile  I  rode  full  speed  after  the  giant  quarry.  I 
was  on  the  tranquil  sorrel,  the  horse  I  much  preferred  in 
riding  down  game  of  any  kind,  because  he  had  a  fair  turn 
of  speed,  and  yet  was  good  about  letting  me  get  on  and  off. 
As  soon  as  I  reached  the  hill-crest  I  saw  the  giraffes  ahead 
of  me,  not  as  far  off  as  I  had  feared,  and  I  raced  toward  them 
without  regard  to  rotten  ground  and  wart-hog  holes.  The 
wounded  one  lagged  behind,  but  when  I  got  near  he  put 
on  a  spurt,  and  as  I  thought  I  was  close  enough  I  leaped 
off,  throwing  the  reins  over  the  sorrel's  head,  and  opened 
fire.  Down  went  the  big  bull,  and  I  thought  my  task  was 
done.  But  as  I  went  back  to  mount  the  sorrel  he  struggled 
to  his  feet  again  and  disappeared  after  his  companion 
among  the  trees,  which  were  thicker  here,  as  we  had  reached 
the  bottom  of  the  valley.  So  I  tore  after  him  again,  and  in 
a  minute  came  to  a  dry  watercourse.  Scrambling  into 
and  out  of  this  I  saw  the  giraffes  ahead  of  me  just  begin- 
ning the  ascent  of  the  opposite  slope;  and  touching  the 
horse  with  the  spur  we  flew  after  the  wounded  bull.    This 


ON  SAFARI.    RHINO  AND  GIRAPFE  115 

time  I  made  up  my  mind  I  would  get  up  close  enough;  but 
Tranquillity  did  not  quite  like  the  look  of  the  thing  ahead 
of  him.  He  did  not  refuse  to  come  up  to  the  giraffe,  but  he 
evidently  felt  that,  with  such  an  object  close  by  and  evident 
in  the  landscape,  it  behooved  him  to  be  careful  as  to  what 


A  young  bull  giraffe,  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  Kilimakiu 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

might  be  hidden  therein,  and  he  shied  so  at  each  bush  we 
passed  that  we  progressed  in  series  of  loops.  So  off  I  jumped, 
throwing  the  reins  over  his  head,  and  opened  fire  once  more; 
and  this  time  the  great  bull  went  down  for  good. 

Tranquillity  recovered  his  nerve  at  once  and  grazed 
contentedly  while  I  admired  the  huge  proportions  and 
beautiful  coloring  of  my  prize.  In  a  few  minutes  Captain 
Slatter  loped  up,  and  the  gun-bearers  and  saises  followed. 


116  APRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

As  if  by  magic,  three  or  four  Wakamba  turned  up  immedi- 
ately afterward,  their  eyes  glistening  at  the  thought  of  the 
feast  ahead  for  the  whole  tribe.  It  was  mid-afternoon, 
and  there  was  no  time  to  waste.  My  sais^  Simba,  an  excel- 
lent long-distance  runner,  was  sent  straight  to  camp  to  get 
Heller  and  pilot  him  back  to  the  dead  giraffes.  Beside 
each  of  the  latter,  for  they  had  fallen  a  mile  apart,  we  left 
a  couple  of  men  to  build  fires.  Then  we  rode  toward  camp. 
To  my  regret,  the  smaller  giraffe  turned  out  to  be  a  young 
bull  and  not  a  cow. 

At  this  very  time,  and  utterly  without  our  knowledge, 
there  was  another  giraffe  hunt  going  on.  Sir  Alfred  had 
taken  out  Kermit  and  Medlicott,  and  they  came  across  a 
herd  of  a  dozen  giraffes  right  out  in  the  open  plains.  Med- 
licott*s  horse  was  worn  out  and  he  could  not  keep  up,  but 
both  the  others  were  fairly  well  mounted.  Both  were  light 
men  and  hard  riders,  and  although  the  giraffes  had  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  the  start,  it  was  not  long  before  both 
were  at  the  heels  of  the  herd.  They  singled  out  the  big  bull, 
which  by  the  way  turned  out  to  be  an  even  bigger  bull  tha;n 
mine,  and  fired  at  him  as  they  galloped.  In  such  a  head- 
long helter-skelter  chase,  however,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to 
score  a  hit  from  horseback  unless  one  is  very  close  up;  and 
Sir  Alfred  made  up  his  mind  to  try  to  drive  out  the  bull 
from  the  rest  of  the  herd.  He  succeeded;  but  at  this  mo- 
ment his  horse  put  a  forefoot  into  a  hole  and  turned  a  com- 
plete somersault,  almost  wrenching  out  his  shoulder.  Sir 
Alfred  was  hurled  off  head  over  heels,  but  even  as  he  rolled 
over,  clutching  his  rifle,  he  twisted  himself  round  to  his 
knees,  and  took  one  last  shot  at  the  flying  giraffe.  This 
left  Kermit  alone  and  he  galloped  hard  on  the  giraffe's 
heels,  firing  again  and  again  with  his  Winchester.  Finally 
his  horse  became  completely  done  out  and  fell  behind; 
whereupon  Kermit  jumped  off,  and  being  an  excellent 
long-distance  runner,  ran  after  the  giraffe  on  foot  for  more 
than  a  mile.  But  he  did  not  need  to  shoot  again.  The 
great  beast  had  been  mortally  wounded  and  it  suddenly 


118  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAH^S 

slowed  down,  halted,  and  fell  over  dead.  As  a  matter  of 
curiosity  we  kept  the  Winchester  bullets  both  from  Ker- 
mit's  giraffe  and  from  mine.  I  made  a  point  of  keeping 
as  many  as  possible  of  the  bullets  with  which  the  different 
animals  were  slain  so  as  to  see  just  what  was  done  by  the 
different  types  of  rifles  we  had  with  us. 

When  I  reached  camp  I  found  that  Heller  had  already 
started.  Next  morning  I  rode  down  to  see  him  and  found 
him  hard  at  work  with  the  skins;  but  as  it  would  take  him 
two  or  three  days  to  finish  them  and  put  them  in  condition 
for  transport,  we  decided  that  the  safari  should  march 
back  to  the  Potha  camp,  and  that  from  thence  we  would 
send  Percival's  ox  wagon  to  bring  back  to  the  camp  all  the 
skins,  Heller  and  his  men  accompanying  him.  The  plan 
was  carried  out,  and  the  following  morning  we  shifted  the 
big  camp  as  proposed. 

Heller,  thus  left  behind,  came  near  having  an  unpleas- 
ant adventure.  He  slept  in  his  own  tent,  and  his  Wakamba 
skinners  slept  under  the  fly  not  far  off.  One  night  they 
let  the  fires  die  down  and  were  roused  at  midnight  by 
hearing  the  grunting  of  a  hungry  lion  apparently  not  a 
dozen  yards  off  in  the  darkness.  Heller  quickly  lit  his 
lantern  and  sat  up  with  his  shot-gun  loaded  with  bird  shot, 
the  only  weapon  he  had  with  him.  The  lion  walked  round 
and  round  the  tent,  grunting  at  intervals.  Then,  after  some 
minutes  of  suspense,  he  drew  off.  While  the  grunting  had 
been  audible,  not  a  sound  came  from  the  tent  of  the  Wa- 
kambas^  who  all  cowered  under  their  blankets  in  perfect 
silence.  But  once  he  had  gone  there  was  a  great  chatter- 
ing^  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  fires  were  roaring,  nor  were 
they  again  suffered  to  die  down. 

Heller's  skinners  had  grown  to  work  very  well  when 
under  his  eye.  He  had  encountered  much  difficulty  in  get- 
ting men  who  would  do  the  work,  and  had  tried  the  rep- 
resentatives of  various  tribes,  but  without  success  until 
he  struck  the  Wakamba.  These  were  real  savages  who 
filed  their  teeth  and  delighted  in  raw  flesh,  and  Heller's 


ON  SAFARI.    RHINO  AND  GIRAFFE  119 

explanation  of  their  doing  well  was  that  their  taste  for  the 
raw  flesh  kept  them  thoroughly  interested  in  their  job,  so 
that  they  learned  without  difficulty.  The  porters  speedily 
christened  each  of  the  white  men  by  some  title  of  their 
own,  using  the  ordinary  Swahili  title  of  Bwana  (master)  as 
a  prefix.  Heller  was  the  Bwana  Who  Skinned;  Loring, 
who  collected  the  small  mammals,  was  named,  merely 
descriptively,   the   Mouse   Master,    Bwana    Pania.     I   was 


The  Percival  family 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

always  called  Bwana  Makuba,  the  chief  or  Great  Master; 
Kermit  was  first  called  Bwana  Medogo,  the  young  mas- 
ter, and  afterward  was  christened  "  the  Dandy,"  Bwana 
Merodadi. 

From  Potha  the  safari  went  in  two  days  to  McMillan's 
place,  Juja  Farm,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Athi.  I  stayed 
behind,  as  I  desired  to  visit  the  American  Mission  Station 
at  Machakos.  Accordingly,  Sir  Alfred  and  1  rode  thither. 
Machakos  has  long  been  a  native  town,  for  it  was  on  the 
route  formerly  taken  by  the  Arab  caravans  that  went  from 
the  coast  to  the  interior  after  slaves  and  ivory.  Riding 
toward  it  we  passed  herd  after  herd  of  cattle,  sheep,  and 
goats,  each  guarded  by  two  or  three  savage  herdsmen. 
The  little  town  itself  was  both  interesting  and  attractive. 


120  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Besides  the  natives  there  were  a  number  of  Indian  traders 
and  the  EngHsh  commissioner  and  assistant  commissioner, 
with  a  small  body  of  native  soldiers.  The  latter  not  a  long 
time  before  had  been  just  such  savages  as  those  round  about 
them,  and  the  change  for  the  better  wrought  in  their  phy- 
sique and  morale  by  the  ordered  discipline  to  which  they 
had  submitted  themselves  could  hardly  be  exaggerated. 
When  we  arrived,  the  commissioner  and  his  assistant  were 
engaged  in  cross-examining  some  neighboring  chiefs  as  to 
the  cattle  sickness.  The  English  rule  in  Africa  has  been 
of  incalculable  benefit  to  Africans  themselves,  and  indeed 
this  is  true  of  the  rule  of  most  European  nations.  Mistakes 
have  been  made,  of  course,  but  they  have  proceeded  at  least 
as  often  from  an  unwise  effort  to  accomplish  too  much 
in  the  way  of  beneficence,  as  from  a  desire  to  exploit  the 
natives.  Each  of  the  civilized  nations  that  has  taken  posses- 
sion of  any  part  of  Africa  has  had  its  own  peculiar  good 
qualities  and  its  own  peculiar  defects.  Some  of  them  have 
done  too  much  in  supervising  and  ordering  the  lives  of  the 
natives,  and  in  interfering  with  their  practices  and  customs. 
The  English  error,  like  our  own  under  similar  conditions, 
has,  if  anything,  been  in  the  other  direction.  The  effort 
has  been  to  avoid  wherever  possible  all  interference  with 
tribal  customs,  even  when  of  an  immoral  and  repulsive 
character,  and  to  do  no  more  than  what  is  obviously  neces- 
sary, such  as  insistence  upon  keeping  the  peace  and  prevent- 
ing the  spread  of  cattle  disease.  Excellent  reasons  can  be 
advanced  in  favor  of  this  policy,  and  it  must  always  be 
remembered  that  a  fussy  and  ill-considered  benevolence  is 
more  sure  to  awaken  resentment  than  cruelty  itself;  while 
the  natives  are  apt  to  resent  deeply  even  things  that  are  ob- 
viously for  their  ultimate  welfare.  Yet  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  with  caution  and  wisdom  it  would  be  possible  to 
proceed  somewhat  farther  than  has  yet  been  the  case  in 
the  direction  of  pushing  upward  some  at  least  of  the  East 
African  tribes:  and  this  though  I  recognize  fully  that  many 
of  these  tribes  are  of  a  low  and  brutalized  type.     Having 


ON  SAFARI.    RHINO  AND  GIRAFFE 


121 


said  this  much  in  the  way  oi  criticism,  I  wish  to  add  my 
tribute  of  unstinted  admiration  for  the  disinterested  and 
efficient  work  being  done,  ahke  in  the  interest  of  the  white 
man  and  the  black,  by  the  government  officials  whom  I 


Group  of  skin-laden  mules  passing  by  the  Bondoni  waterhole  on 

their  way  to  the  railroad 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

met  in  East  Africa.    They  are  men  in  whom  their  country 
has  every  reason  to  feel  a  just  pride. 

We  lunched  with  the  American  missionaries.  Mission 
work  among  savages  offers  many  difficulties,  and  often  the 
wisest  and  most  earnest  effort  meets  with  dishearteningly 
little  reward;  while  lack  of  common-sense,  and  of  course, 
above  all,  lack  of  a  firm  and  resolute  disinterestedness,  in- 
sures the  worst  kind  of  failure.  There  are  missionaries  who 
do  not  do  well,  just  as  there  are  men  in  every  conceivable 
walk  of  life  who  do  not  do  well;  and  excellent  men  who 
are   not   missionaries,    including  both   government   officials 


122  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

and  settlers,  are  only  too  apt  to  jump  at  the  chance  of  criti- 
cising a  missionary  for  every  alleged  sin  of  either  omission 
or  commission.  Finally,  zealous  missionaries,  fervent  in  the 
faith,  do  not  always  find  it  easy  to  remember  that  sav- 
ages can  only  be  raised  by  slow  steps,  that  an  empty  adhe- 
rence to  forms  and  ceremonies  amounts  to  nothing,  that 
industrial  training  is  an  essential  in  any  permanent  upward 
movement,  and  that  the  gradual  elevation  of  mind  and 
character  is  a  prerequisite  to  the  achievement  of  any  kind 
of  Christianity  which  is  worth  calling  such.  Nevertheless, 
after  all  this  has  been  said,  it  remains  true  that  the  good 
done  by  missionary  effort  in  Africa  has  been  incalculable. 
There  are  parts  of  the  great  continent,  and  among  them 
I  include  many  sections  of  East  Africa^  which  can  be  made 
a  white  man's  country;  and  in  these  parts  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  favor  the  growth  of  a  large  and  prosperous 
white  population.  But  over  most  of  Africa  the  problem  for 
the  white  man  is  to  govern,  with  wisdom  and  firmness,  and 
when  necessary  with  severity,  but  always  with  an  eye  single 
to  their  own  interests  and  development,  the  black  and  brown 
races.  To  do  this  needs  sympathy  and  devotion  no  less  than 
strength  and  wisdom,  and  in  the  task  the  part  to  be  played 
by  the  missionary  and  the  part  to  be  played  by  the  official 
are  alike  great,  and  the  two  should  work  hand  in  hand. 

After  returning  from  Machakos,  I  spent  the  night  at  Sir 
Alfred's,  and  next  morning  said  good-by  with  most  genu- 
ine regret  to  my  host  and  his  family.  Then,  followed  by 
my  gun-bearers  and  sais,  I  rode  off  across  the  Athi  Plains. 
Through  the  bright  white  air  the  sun  beat  down  merci- 
lessly, and  the  heat  haze  wavered  above  the  endless  flats 
of  scorched  grass.  Hour  after  hour  we  went  slowly  for- 
ward, through  the  morning,  and  through  the  burning  heat 
of  the  equatorial  noon,  until  in  mid-afternoon  we  came  to 
the  tangled  tree  growth  which  fringed  the  half-dried  bed  of 
the  Athi.  Here  I  off-saddled  for  an  hour;  then,  mounting, 
I  crossed  the  river-bed  where  it  was  waterless,  and  before 
evening  fell  I  rode  up  to  Juja  Farm. 


CHAPTER  V 
JUJA  FARM;    HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD 

At  Juja  Farm  we  were  welcomed  with  the  most  gener- 
ous hospitahty  by  my  fellow-countryman  and  his  wife,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  W.  N.  McMillan.  Selous  had  been  staying  with 
them,  and  one  afternoon  I  had  already  ridden  over  from 
Sir  Alfred's  ranch  to  take  tea  with  them  at  their  other  house, 
on  the  beautiful  Mua  hills. 

Juja  Farm  lies  on  the  edge  of  the  Athi  Plains,  and  the 
house  stands  near  the  junction  of  the  Nairobi  and  Rewero 
Rivers.  The  house,  like  almost  all  East  African  houses, 
was  of  one  story,  a  broad,  vine-shaded  veranda  running 
around  it.  There  were  numerous  out-buildings  of  every 
kind;  there  were  flocks  and  herds,  cornfields,  a  vegetable 
garden,  and,  immediately  in  front  of  the  house,  a  very 
pretty  flower  garden,  carefully  tended  by  unsmiling  Ki- 
kuyu  savages.  All  day  long  these  odd  creatures  worked 
at  the  grass  and  among  the  flower  beds;  according  to  the 
custom  of  their  tribe  their  ears  were  slit  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  stretch  the  lobes  to  an  almost  unbelievable  extent, 
and  in  these  apertures  they  wore  fantastically  carved  na- 
tive ornaments.  One  of  them  had  been  attracted  by  the 
shining  surface  of  an  empty  tobacco  can,  and  he  wore  this 
in  one  ear  to  match  the  curiously  carved  wooden  drum  he 
carried  in  the  other.  Another,  whose  arms  and  legs  were 
massive  with  copper  and  iron  bracelets,  had  been  given  a 
blanket  because  he  had  no  other  garment;  he  got  along 
quite  well  with  the  blanket  excepting  when  he  had  to  use 
the  lawn  mower,  and  then  he  would  usually  wrap  the  blan- 
ket around  his  neck  and  handle  the  lawn  mower  with  the 
evident  feeling  that  he  had  done  all  that  the  most  exacting 
conventionaUsm  could  require. 

123 


15^4  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

The  house  boys  and  gun-bearers,  and  most  of  the  boys 
who  took  care  of  the  horses,  were  Somahs,  whereas  the 
cattle-keepers  who  tended  the  herds  of  cattle  were  Masai, 
and  the  men  and  women  who  worked  in  the  fields  were 
Kikuyus.  The  three  races  had  nothing  to  do  with  one 
another,  and  the  few  Indians  had  nothing  to  do  with  any  of 
them.  The  Kikuyus  lived  in  their  beehive  huts  scattered 
in  small  groups;  the  Somalis  all  dwelt  in  their  own  little 
village  on  one  side  of  the  farm;  and  half  a  mile  off  the 
Masai  dwelt  in  their  village.  Both  the  Somalis  and  Masai 
were  fine,  daring  fellows;  the  Somalis  were  Mohammedans 
and  horsemen;  the  Masai  were  cattle-herders,  who  did  their 
work  as  they  did  their  fighting,  on  foot,  and  were  wild 
heathen  of  the  most  martial  type.  They  looked  carefully 
after  the  cattle,  and  were  delighted  to  join  in  the  chase  of 
dangerous  game,  but  regular  work  they  thoroughly  de- 
spised. Sometimes  when  we  had  gathered  a  mass  of  Ki- 
kuyus or  of  our  own  porters  together  to  do  some  job,  two  or 
three  Masai  would  stroll  up  to  look  on  with  curiosity,  sword 
in  belt  and  great  spear  in  hand;  their  features  were  well  cut, 
their  hair  curiously  plaited,  and  they  had  the  erect  carriage 
and  fearless  bearing  that  naturally  go  with  a  soldierly  race. 

Within  the  house,  with  its  bedrooms  and  dining-room, 
its  library  and  drawing-room,  and  the  cool,  shaded  veranda, 
everything  was  so  comfortable  that  it  was  hard  to  realize 
that  we  were  far  in  the  interior  of  Africa  and  almost  under 
the  equator.  Our  hostess  was  herself  a  good  rider  and 
good  shot,  and  had  killed  her  lion;  and  both  our  host  and 
a  friend  who  was  staying  with  him,  Mr.  Bulpett,  were  not 
merely  mighty  hunters  who  had  bagged  every  important 
variety  of  large  and  dangerous  game,  but  were  also  ex- 
plorers of  note,  whose  travels  had  materially  helped  in 
widening  the  area  of  our  knowledge  of  what  was  once 
the  dark  continent. 

Many  birds  sang  in  the  garden,  bulbuls,  thrushes,  and 
warblers;  and  from  the  narrow  fringe  of  dense  woodland 
along  the  edges  of  the  rivers  other  birds  called  loudly,  some 


JUJAFARM;    HIPPO   AND   LEOPARD 


1<25 


'J'he  house  at  Juja  Farm 
Frojii  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Ideti  Loriug 

with  harsh,  some  with  musical  voices.  Here  for  the  first 
time  we  saw  the  honey-guide,  the  bird  that  insists  upon 
leading  any  man  it  sees  to  honey,  so  that  he  may  rob  the 
hive  and  give  it  a  share. 

Game  came  right  around  the  house.  Hartebeests,  wilde- 
beests, and  zebras  grazed  in  sight  on  the  open  plain.  The 
hippopotami  that  lived  close  by  in  the  river  came  out  at 
night  into  the  garden.  A  couple  of  years  before  a  rhino 
had  come  down  into  the  same  garden  in  broad  daylight, 
and  quite  wantonly  attacked  one  of  the  Kikuyu  laborers, 
tossing  him  and  breaking  his  thigh.  It  had  then  passed 
by  the  house  out  to  the  plain,  where  it  saw  an  ox  cart, 
which  it  immediately  attacked  and  upset,  cannoning  off 
after  its  charge  and  passing  up  through  the  span  of 
oxen,  breaking  all  the  yokes  but  fortunately  not  killing  an 
animal.  Then  it  met  one  of  the  men  of  the  house  on 
horseback,  immediately  assailed  him,  and  was  killed  for 
its  pains. 

My  host  was  about  to  go  on  safari  for  a  couple  of 
months  withSelous,  and  to  manage  their  safari  they  had 


126  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

one  of  the  noted  professional  hunters  of  East  Africa,  Mr. 
H.  Judd;  and  Judd  was  kind  enough  to  take  me  out  hunt- 
ing almost  every  day  that  we  were  at  Juja.  We  would 
breakfast  at  dawn  and  leave  the  farm  about  the  time  that 
it  grew  light  enough  to  see:  ordinarily  our  course  was 
eastward,  toward  the  Athi,  a  few  miles  distant.  These 
morning  rides  were  very  beautiful.  In  our  front  was  the 
mountain  mass  of  Donyo  Sabuk,  and  the  sun  rose  behind 
it,  flooding  the  heavens  with  gold  and  crimson.  The 
morning  air  blew  fresh  in  our  faces,  and  the  unshod  feet 
of  our  horses  made  no  sound  as  they  trod  the  dew-drenched 
grass.  On  every  side  game  stood  to  watch  us,  herds  of 
hartebeests  and  zebras,  and  now  and  then  a  herd  of  wilde- 
beests or  a  few  straggling  old  wildebeest  bulls.  Sometimes 
the  zebras  and  kongoni  were  very  shy,  and  took  fright 
when  we  were  yet  a  long  way  off;  at  other  times  they  would 
stand  motionless  and  permit  us  to  come  within  fair  gun- 
shot, and  after  we  had  passed  we  could  still  see  them  re- 
garding us  without  their  having  moved.  The  wildebeests 
were  warier;  usually  when  we  were  yet  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
or  so  distant,  the  herd,  which  had  been  standing  with  heads 
up,  their  short,  shaggy  necks  and  heavy  withers  giving  the 
animals  an  unmistakable  look,  would  take  fright,  and, 
vv^ith  heavy  curvets,  and  occasional  running  in  semicircles, 
would  make  off,  heads  held  down  and  long  tails  lashing 
the  air. 

In  the  open  woods  which  marked  the  border  between 
the  barren  plains  and  the  forested  valley  of  the  Athi,  Kermit 
and  I  shot  waterbuck  and  impalla.  The  waterbuck  is  a 
stately  antelope  with  long,  coarse  gray  hair  and  fine  car- 
nage of  the  head  and  neck;  the  male  alone  carries  horns. 
We  found  them  usually  in  parties  of  ten  or  a  dozen,  both 
of  bulls  and  cows;  but  sometimes  a  party  of  cows  would  go 
alone,  or  three  or  four  bulls  might  be  found  together.  In 
spite  of  its  name,  we  did  not  find  it  much  given  to  going  in 
the  water  although  it  would  cross  the  river  fearlessly  when- 
ever it  desired;   it  was,  however,  always  found  not  very  far 


JUJA  FARM;  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD 


127 


from  water.  It  liked  the  woods  and  did  not  go  many  miles 
from  the  streams,  yet  we  frequently  saw  it  on  the  open 
plains  a  mile  or  two  from  trees,  feeding  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  zebra  and  the  hartebeest.  This  was,  however,  usually 
quite  early  in  the  morning  or  quite  late  in  the  afternoon. 


Masai  warriors  near  McMillan's  ranch  on  the  Mua  hills 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

In  the  heat  of  the  day  it  clearly  preferred  to  be  In  the  for- 
est, along  the  stream's  edge,  or  in  the  bush-clad  ravines. 

The  impalla  are  found  in  exactly  the  same  kind  of 
country  as  the  waterbuck,  and  often  associate  with  them. 
To  my  mind  they  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of  all  ante- 
lope. They  are  about  the  size  of  a  white-tailed  deer,  their 
beautiful   annulated    horns    making   a    single    spiral,    and 


128  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

their  coat  is  like  satin  with  its  contrasting  shades  of  red 
and  white.  They  have  the  most  graceful  movements  of 
any  animal  I  know,  and  it  is  extraordinary  to  see  a  herd 
start  off  when  frightened,  both  bucks  and  does  bounding 
clear  over  the  tops  of  the  tall  bushes,  with  a  peculiar  bird- 
like motion  and  lightness.  Usually  a  single  old  buck  will 
be  found  with  a  large  company  of  does  and  fawns;  the 
other  bucks  go  singly  or  in  small  parties.  It  was  in  the 
middle  of  May,  and  we  saw  fawns  of  all  ages.  When  in 
the  open,  where,  like  the  waterbuck,  it  often  went  in  the 
morning  and  evening,  the  impalla  was  very  shy,  but  1  did 
not  find  it  particularly  so  among  the  woods.  In  connection 
with  shooting  two  of  the  impalla,  there  occurred  little  inci- 
dents which  are  worthy  of  mention. 

In  one  case  I  had  just  killed  a  waterbuck  cow,  hitting 
it  at  a  considerable  distance  and  by  a  lucky  fluke,  after  a 
good  deal  of  bad  shooting.  We  started  the  porters  in  with 
the  waterbuck,  and  then  rode  west  through  an  open  coun- 
try, dotted  here  and  there  with  trees  and  with  occasional 
ant-hills.  In  a  few  minutes  we  saw  an  impalla  buck,  and 
I  crept  up  behind  an  ant-hill  and  obtained  a  shot  at  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  yards.  The  buck  dropped,  and  as  I 
was  putting  in  another  cartridge  I  said  to  Judd  that  I 
didn't  like  to  see  an  animal  drop  like  that,  so  instanta- 
neously, as  there  was  always  the  possibility  that  it  might 
only  be  creased,  and  that  if  an  animal  so  hurt  got  up,  it 
always  went  off  exactly  as  if  unhurt.  When  we  raised  our 
eyes  again  to  look  for  the  impalla  it  had  vanished.  I  was 
sure  that  we  would  never  see  it  again,  and  Judd  felt  much 
the  same  way,  but  we  walked  in  the  direction  toward  which 
its  head  had  been  pointed,  and  Judd  ascended  an  ant-hill 
to  scan  the  surrounding  country  with  his  glasses.  He  did 
so,  and  after  a  minute  remarked  that  he  could  not  see  the 
wounded  impalla;  when  a  sudden  movement  caused  us 
to  look  down,  and  there  it  was,  lying  at  our  very  feet,  on 
the  side  of  the  ant-hill,  unable  to  rise.  I  had  been  using  a 
sharp-pointed   bullet   in   the   Springfield,    and   this   makes 


JUJA  FARM;   HIPPO   AND   LEOPARD 


129 


a  big  hole.  The  bullet  had  gone  too  far  back,  in  front  of 
the  hips.  I  should  not  have  wondered  at  all  if  the  animal 
had  failed  to  get  up  after  falling,  but  I  did  not  understand 
why,  as  it  recovered  enough  from  the  shock  to  be  able  to 
get  up,  it  had  not  continued  to  travel,  instead  of  falling 
after  going  one  hundred  yards.  Indeed,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  a  deer  or  prongbuck,  hit  in  the  same  fashion, 
would  have  gone  off  and  would 
have  given  a  long  chase  before 
being  overtaken.  Judging  from 
what  others  have  said,  I  have 
no  doubt  that  African  game 
is  very  tough  and  succumbs 
less  easily  to  wounds  than  is 
the  case  with  animals  of  the 
northern  temperate  zone;  but 
in  my  own  experience,  I  several 
times  saw  African  antelopes 
succumb  to  wounds  quicker 
than  the  average  northern  ani- 
mal would  have  succumbed  to 
a  similar  wound.  One  was  this 
impalla.  Another  was  the  cow 
eland  I  first  shot;  her  hind  leg 
was  broken  high  up,  and  the 
wound,  though  crippling,  was 
not  such  as  would  have  pre- 
vented a  moose  or  wapiti  from 
hobbling  away  on  three  legs;  yet  in  spite  of  hard  struggles 
the  eland  was  wholly  unable  to  regain  her  feet. 

The  impalla  thus  shot,  by  the  way,  although  in  fine 
condition  and  the  coat  of  glossy  beauty,  was  infested  by 
ticks;  around  the  horns  the  horrid  little  insects  were  clus- 
tered in  thick  masses  for  a  space  of  a  diameter  of  some 
inches.  It  was  to  me  marvellous  that  they  had  not  set 
up  inflammation  or  caused  great  sores,  for  they  were  so 
thick  that  at  a  distance  of  a  few  feet  they  gave  the  appear- 


Head  of  a  waterbuck  bull  shot  by 

Kermit  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmittid  Heller 


130  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

ance  of  there  being  some  big  gland  or  bare  place  at  the  root 
of  each  horn. 

The  other  impalla  buck  also  showed  an  unexpected 
softness,  succumbing  to  a  wound  which  I  do  not  believe 
would  have  given  me  either  a  white-tailed  or  a  black-tailed 
deer.  I  had  been  vainly  endeavoring  to  get  a  waterbuck 
bull,  and  as  the  day  was  growing  hot  I  was  riding  home- 
ward, scanning  the  edge  of  the  plain  where  it  merged  into 
the  trees  that  extended  out  from  the  steep  bank  that  hemmed 
in  one  side  of  the  river-bottom.  From  time  to  time  we 
would  see  an  impalla  or  a  waterbuck  making  its  way  from 
the  plain  back  to  the  river-bottom,  to  spend  the  day  in  the 
shade.  One  of  these  I  stalked,  and  after  a  good  deal  of 
long-range  shooting  broke  a  hind  leg  high  up.  It  got  out 
of  sight  and  we  rode  along  the  edge  of  the  steep  descent 
which  ltd  down  into  the  river-bottom  proper.  In  the  bot- 
tom there  were  large,  open,  grassy  places,  while  the  trees 
made  a  thick  fringe  along  the  river  course.  We  had  given 
up  the  impalla  and  turned  out  toward  the  plain,  when  one 
of  my  gun-bearers  whistled  to  us  and  said  he  had  seen  the 
wounded  animal  cross  the  bottom  and  go  into  the  fringe 
of  trees  bounding  a  deep  pool  in  which  we  knew  there  were 
both  hippos  and  crocodiles.  We  were  off  our  horses  at 
once,  and,  leaving  them  at  the  top,  scrambled  down  the 
descent  and  crossed  the  bottom  to  the  spot  indicated.  The 
impalla  had  lain  down  as  soon  as  it  reached  cover,  and  as 
we  entered  the  fringe  of  wood  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  it 
getting  up  and  making  off.  Yet  fifty  yards  farther  it 
stopped  again,  standing  right  on  the  brink  of  the  pool,  so 
close  that  when  I  shot  it,  it  fell  over  into  the  water. 

When,  after  arranging  for  this  impalla  to  be  carried 
back  to  the  farm,  we  returned  to  where  our  horses  had 
been  left,  the  boys  told  us  with  much  excitement  that  there 
was  a  large  snake  near  by;  and  sure  enough  a  few  yards 
off,  coiled  up  in  the  long  grass  under  a  small  tree,  was  a 
python.  I  could  not  see  it  distinctly,  and  using  a  solid  bul- 
let I  just  missed  the  backbone,  the  bullet  going  through 


JUJA  FARM;  HIPPO   AND  LEOPARD 


151 


the  body  about  its  middle.  Immediately  the  snake  lashed 
at  me  with  open  jaws,  and  then,  uncoiling,  came  gliding 
rapidly  in  our  direction.  I  do  not  think  it  was  charging; 
I  think  it  was  merely  trying  to  escape.  But  Judd,  who 
was  utterly  unmoved  by  lion,  leopard,  or  rhino,  evidently 
held  this  snake  in  respect,  and  yelled  to  me  to  get  out  of 
the  way.    Accordingly,  I  jumped  back  a  few  feet,  and  the 


The  python 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  N.  McMillan 

snake  came  over  the  ground  where  I  had  stood;  its  evil 
genius  then  made  it  halt  for  a  moment  and  raise  its  head 
to  a  height  of  perhaps  three  feet,  and  I  killed  it  by  a  shot 
through  the  neck.  The  porters  were  much  wrought  up 
about  the  snake,  and  did  not  at  all  like  my  touching  it  and 
taking  it  up,  first  by  the  tail  and  then  by  the  head.  It  was 
only  twelve  feet  long.  We  tied  it  to  a  long  stick  and  sent 
it  in  by  two  porters. 

Another  day  we  beat  for  lions,  but  without  success. 
We  rode  to  a  spot  a  few  miles  off,  where  we  were  joined  by 
three    Boer   farmers.      They   were   big,    upstanding   men, 


VA^2  AFRICAN   GAJNIE   TRAILS 

looking  just  as  Boer  farmers  ought  to  look  who  had  been 
through  a  war  and  had  ever  since  led  the  adventurous  life 
of  frontier  farmers  in  wild  regions.  They  were  accom- 
panied by  a  pack  of  big,  rough-looking  dogs,  but  were 
on  foot,  walking  with  long  and  easy  strides.  The  dogs 
looked  a  rough-and-ready  lot,  but  on  this  particular  morn- 
ing showed  themselves  of  little  use;  at  any  rate  they  put 
up  nothing. 

But  Kermit  had  a  bit  of  deserved  good  luck.  While 
the  main  body  of  us  went  down  the  river-bed,  he  and  Mc- 
Millan, with  a  few  natives,  beat  up  a  side  ravine,  down 
the  middle  of  which  ran  the  usual  dry  watercourse  fringed 
with  patches  of  brush.  In  one  of  these  they  put  up  a  leop- 
ard, and  saw  it  slinking  forward  ahead  of  them  through 
the  bushes.  Then  they  lost  sight  of  it,  and  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  in  a  large  thicket.  So  Kermit  went  on 
one  side  of  it  and  McMillan  on  the  other,  and  the  beaters 
approached  to  try  and  get  the  leopard  out.  Of  course  none 
of  the  beaters  had  guns;  their  function  was  merely  to  make 
a  disturbance  and  rouse  the  game,  and  they  were  cautioned 
on  no  account  to  get  into  danger.  But  the  leopard  did  not 
wait  to  be  driven.  Without  any  warning,  out  he  came  and 
charged  straight  at  Kermit,  who  stopped  him  when  he  was 
but  six  yards  off  with  a  bullet  in  the  forepart  of  the  body; 
the  leopard  turned,  and  as  he  galloped  back  Kermit  hit  him 
again,  crippling  him  in  the  hips.  The  wounds  were  fatal, 
and  they  would  have  knocked  the  fight  out  of  any  animal 
less  plucky  and  savage  than  the  leopard;  but  not  even  in 
Africa  is  there  a  beast  of  more  unflinching  courage  than 
this  spotted  cat.  The  beaters  were  much  excited  by  the 
sight  of  the  charge  and  the  way  in  which  it  was  stopped, 
and  they  pressed  jubilantly  forward,  too  heedlessly;  one 
of  them,  who  was  on  McMillan's  side  of  the  thicket,  went 
too  near  it,  and  out  came  the  wounded  leopard  at  him. 
It  was  badly  crippled  or  it  would  have  got  the  beater  at 
once;  as  it  was,  it  was  slowly  overtaking  him  as  he  ran 
through  the   tall   grass,   when   McMillan,   standing  on  an 


JUJA   FARM ;   IIIPPC;   AND    LEOPARD 


l.S.S 


ant-heap,  shot  it  again.  Yet,  in  spite  of  having  this  third 
bullet  in  it.  It  ran  down  the  beater  and  seized  him,  worrying 
him  with  teeth  and  claws;  but  it  was  weak  because  of  its 
wounds,  and  the  powerful  savage  wrenched  himself  free, 
while  McMillan  fired  into  the  beast  again;  and  back  it 
went  through  the  long  grass  into  the  thicket.     There  was  a 


Kermit  Roose\elt  and  the  leupard 
From  a  photograph  by  II'.  A^  McMillaH 


pause,  and  the  wounded  beater  was  removed  to  a  place  of 
safety,  while  a  messenger  was  sent  on  to  us  to  bring  up 
the  Boer  dogs.  But  while  they  were  waiting,  the  leopard, 
on  its  own  initiative,  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  for  out  it 
came  again  straight  at  Kermit,  and  this  time  it  dropped 
dead  to  Kermit's  bullet.  No  animal  could  have  shown 
a  more  fearless  and  resolute  temper.  It  was  an  old  female, 
but  small,  its  weight  being  a  little  short  of  seventy  pounds. 
The  smallest  female  cougar  I  ever  killed  was  heavier  than 
this,  and  one  very  big  male  cougar  which  I  killed  in  Colo- 


134 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


rado  was  three  times  the  weight.  Yet  I  have  never  heard 
of  any  cougar  which  displayed  anything  Hke  the  spirit 
and  ferocity  of  this  Httle  leopard,  or  which  in  any  way 
approached  it  as  a  dangerous  foe.  It  was  sent  back  to 
camp  in  company  with  the  wounded  beater,  after  the 
wounds  of  the  latter  had  been  dressed;  they  were  not  seri- 
ous, and  he  was  speedily  as  well 
as  ever. 

The  rivers  that  bounded  Juja 
Farm,  not  only  the  Athi,  but  the 
Nairobi  and  Rewero,  contained 
hippopotami  and  crocodiles  in 
the  deep  pools.  I  was  particu- 
larly anxious  to  get  one  of  the 
former,  and  early  one  morning 
Judd  and  I  rode  off  across  the 
plains,  through  the  herds  of  graz- 
ing game  seen  dimly  in  the  dawn, 
to  the  Athi.  We  reached  the 
river,  and,  leaving  our  horses, 
went  down  into  the  wooded  bot- 
tom, soon  after  sunrise.  Judd 
had  with  him  a  Masai,  a  keen- 
eyed  hunter,  and  I  my  two  gun- 
bearers.  We  advanced  with  the 
utmost  caution  toward  the  brink 
of  a  great  pool;  on  our  way  we 
saw  a  bushbuck,  but  of  course  did  not  dare  to  shoot  at  it, 
for  hippopotami  are  wary,  except  in  very  unfrequented 
regions,  and  any  noise  will  disturb  them.  As  we  crept 
noiselessly  up  to  the  steep  bank  which  edged  the  pool,  the 
sight  was  typically  African.  On  the  still  water  floated  a 
crocodile,  nothing  but  his  eyes  and  nostrils  visible.  The 
bank  was  covered  with  a  dense  growth  of  trees,  festooned 
with  vines;  among  the  branches  sat  herons;  a  little  cormo- 
rant dived  into  the  water;  and  a  very  small  and  brilliantly 
colored    kingfisher,  with  a  red  beak  and   large  turquoise 


Native  boy  carrying  in  a  leopard 
shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  near 
Juja  Ranch 
Prom  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


JUJA  FARM;   HIPPO   AND   LEOPARD  137 

crest,  perched  unheedingly  within  a  few  feet  of  us.  Here 
and  there  a  dense  growth  of  the  tall  and  singularly  grace- 
ful papyrus  rose  out  of  the  water,  the  feathery  heads,  which 
crowned  the  long  smooth  green  stems,  waving  gently  to 
and  fro. 

We  scanned  the  waters  carefully,  and  could  see  no  sign 
of  hippos,  and,  still  proceeding  with  the  utmost  caution,  we 


Judd  permanganating  the  beater  who  was  mauled  b.y  the  leopard 
From  a  photograph  by  IV.  N.  McMillan 

moved  a  hundred  yards  farther  down  to  another  lookout. 
Here  the  Masai  detected  a  hippo  head  a  long  way  off  on 
the  other  side  of  the  pool;  and  we  again  drew  back  and 
started  cautiously  forward  to  reach  the  point  opposite  which 
he  had  seen  the  head. 

But  we  were  not  destined  to  get  that  hippo.  Just  as 
we  had  about  reached  the  point  at  which  we  had  intended 
to  turn  in  toward  the  pool,  there  was  a  succession  of  snorts 
in  our  front  and  the  sound  of  the  trampling  of  heavy  feet 


138  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

and  of  a  big  body  being  shoved  through  a  dense  mass  of 
tropical  bush.  My  companions  called  to  me  in  loud  whis- 
pers that  it  was  a  rhinoceros  coming  at  us,  and  to  *' Shoot, 
shoot."  In  another  moment  the  rhinoceros  appeared,  twitch- 
ing its  tail  and  tossing  and  twisting  its  head  from  side  to 
side  as  it  came  toward  us.  It  did  not  seem  to  have  very 
good  horns,  and  I  would  much  rather  not  have  killed  it; 
but  there  hardly  seemed  any  alternative,  for  it  certainly 
showed  every  symptom  of  being  bent  on  mischief.  My 
first  shot,  at  under  forty  yards,  produced  no  effect  what- 
ever, except  to  hasten  its  approach.  I  was  using  the  Win- 
chester, with  full-jacketed  bullets;  my  second  bullet  went 
in  between  the  neck  and  shoulder,  bringing  it  to  a  halt.  I 
fired  into  the  shoulder  again,  and  as  it  turned  toward  the 
bush  I  fired  into  its  flank  both  the  bullets  still  remaining 
in  my  magazine. 

For  a  moment  or  two  after  it  disappeared  we  heard 
the  branches  crash,  and  then  there  was  silence.  In  such 
cover  a  wounded  rhino  requires  cautious  handling,  and  as 
quietly  as  possible  we  walked  through  the  open  forest 
along  the  edge  of  the  dense  thicket  into  which  the  animal 
had  returned.  The  thicket  was  a  tangle  of  thorn-bushes, 
reeds,  and  small,  low-branching  trees;  it  was  impossible 
to  see  ten  feet  through  it,  and  a  man  could  only  penetrate 
it  with  the  utmost  slowness  and  difficulty,  whereas  the 
movements  of  the  rhino  were  very  little  impeded.  At  the 
far  end  of  the  thicket  we  examined  the  grass  to  see  if  the 
rhino  had  passed  out,  and  sure  enough  there  was  the  spoor, 
with  so  much  blood  along  both  sides  that  it  was  evident 
the  animal  was  badly  hit.  It  led  across  this  space  and  into 
another  thicket  of  the  same  character  as  the  first;  and 
again  we  stole  cautiously  along  the  edge  some  ten  yards 
out.  I  had  taken  the  heavy  Holland  double-barrel,  and 
with  the  safety  catch  pressed  forward  under  my  thumb,  I 
trod  gingerly  through  the  grass,  peering  into  the  thicket 
and  expectant  of  developments.  In  a  minute  there  was 
a  furious  snorting  and  crashing  directly  opposite  us  in  the 


JUJA  FARM;  HIPPO  AND   LEOPARD  139 

thicket,  and  I  brought  up  my  rifle;  but  the  rhino  did  not 
quite  place  us,  and  broke  out  of  the  cover  in  front,  some 
thirty  yards  away;  and  I  put  both  barrels  into  and  behind 
the  shoulder.  The  terrific  striking  force  of  the  heavy  gun 
told  at  once,  and  the  rhino  wheeled,  and  struggled  back 
into  the  thicket,  and  we  heard  it  fall.     With  the  utmost 


The  second  rhino 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Men  Loring 

caution,  bending  and  creeping  under  the  branches,  we  made 
our  way  in,  and  saw  the  beast  lying  with  its  head  toward  us. 
We  thought  it  was  dead,  but  would  take  no  chances;  and  I 
put  in  another,  but  as  it  proved  needless,  heavy  bullet. 

It  was  an  old  female,  considerably  smaller  than  the  bull 
I  had  already  shot,  with  the  front  horn  measuring  four- 
teen inches  as  against  his  nineteen  inches;  as  always  with 
rhinos,  it  was  covered  with  ticks,  which  clustered  thickly 
in  the  folds  and  creases  of  the  skin,  around  and  in  the  ears, 


140  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

and  in  all  the  tender  places.  McMillan  sent  out  an  ox 
wagon  and  brought  it  in  to  the  house,  where  we  weighed  it. 
It  was  a  little  over  two  thousand  two  hundred  pounds. 
It  had  evidently  been  in  the  neighborhood  in  which  we 
found  it  for  a  considerable  time,  for  a  few  hundred  yards 
away  we  found  its  stamping  ground,  a  circular  spot  where 
the  earth  had  been  all  trampled  up  and  kicked  about,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  rhinoceroses;  they  return  day 
after  day  to  such  places  to  deposit  their  dung,  which  is  then 
kicked  about  with  the  hind  feet.  As  with  all  our  other 
specimens,  the  skin  was  taken  off  and  sent  back  to  the 
National  Museum.  The  stomach  was  filled  with  leaves 
and  twigs,  this  kind  of  rhinoceros  browsing  on  the  tips  of 
the  branches  by  means  of  its  hooked,  prehensile  upper  lip. 
Now  I  did  not  want  to  kill  this  rhinoceros,  and  I  am 
not  certain  that  it  really  intended  to  charge  us.  It  may 
very  well  be  that  if  we  had  stood  firm  it  would,  after  much 
threatening  and  snorting,  have  turned  and  made  off;  vet- 
eran hunters  like  Selous  could,  I  doubt  not,  have  afforded 
to  wait  and  see  what  happened.  But  I  let  it  get  within  forty 
yards,  and  it  still  showed  every  symptom  of  meaning  mis- 
chief, and  at  a  shorter  range  I  could  not  have  been  sure  of 
stopping  it  in  time.  Often  under  such  circumstances  the 
rhino  does  not  mean  to  charge  at  all,  and  is  acting  in  a 
spirit  of  truculent  and  dull  curiosity;  but  often,  when  its 
motions  and  actions  are  indistinguishable  from  those  of  an 
animal  which  does  not  mean  mischief,  it  turns  out  that  a 
given  rhino  does  mean  mischief.  A  year  before  I  arrived 
in  East  Africa  a  surveyor  was  charged  by  a  rhinoceros 
entirely  without  provocation;  he  was  caught  and  killed. 
Chanler's  companion  on  his  long  expedition,  the  Austrian 
Von  Hohnel,  was  very  severely  wounded  by  a  rhino  and 
nearly  died;  the  animal  charged  through  the  line  of  march 
of  the  safari,  and  then  deliberately  turned,  hunted  down 
Von  Hohnel,  and  tossed  him.  Again  and  again  there  have 
been  such  experiences,  and  again  and  again  hunters  who 
did  not  wish  to  kill  rhinos  have  been  forced  to  do  so  in 


JUJA  FARM;  HIPPO   AND   LEOPARD  141 

order  to  prevent  mischief.  Under  such  circumstances  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  men  will  take  too  many  chances 
when  face  to  face  with  a  creature  whose  actions  are  threat- 
ening and  whose  intentions  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to 
divine.  In  fact,  I  do  not  see  how  the  rhinoceros  can  be  per- 
manently preserved,  save  in  very  out-of-the-way  places  or 
in  regular  game  reserves.  There  is  enough  interest  and  ex- 
citement in  the  pursuit  to  attract  every  eager  young  hunter, 
and,  indeed,  very  many  eager  old  hunters;  and  the  beast's 
stupidity,  curiosity,  and  truculence  make  up  a  combination 
of  qualities  which  inevitably  tend  to  insure  its  destruction. 

As  we  brought  home  the  whole  body  of  this  rhinoceros, 
and  as  I  had  put  into  it  eight  bullets,  five  from  the  Win- 
chester and  three  from  the  Holland,  I  was  able  to  make 
a  tolerably  fair  comparison  between  the  two.  With  the 
full-jacketed  bullets  of  the  Winchester  I  had  mortally 
wounded  the  animal;  it  would  have  died  in  a  short  time, 
and  it  was  groggy  when  it  came  out  of  the  brush  in  its 
final  charge;  but  they  inflicted  no  such  smashing  blow  as 
the  heavy  bullets  of  the  Holland.  Moreover,  when  they 
struck  the  heavy  bones  they  tended  to  break  into  frag- 
ments, while  the  big  Holland  bullets  ploughed  through. 
The  Winchester  and  the  Springfield  were  the  weapons 
one  of  which  I  always  carried  in  my  own  hand,  and  for 
any  ordinary  game  I  much  preferred  them  to  any  other 
rifles.  The  Winchester  did  admirably  with  lions,  giraffes, 
elands,  and  smaller  game,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  with  hippos: 
For  heavy  game  like  rhinoceroses  and  buffaloes,  I  found 
that  for  me  personally  the  heavy  Holland  was  unquestion- 
ably the  proper  weapon.  But  in  writing  this  I  wish  most 
distinctly  to  assert  my  full  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the 
choice  of  a  rifle  is  almost  as  much  a  matter  of  personal 
idiosyncrasy  as  the  choice  of  a  friend.  The  above  must 
be  taken  as  merely  the  expression  of  my  personal  pref- 
erences. It  will  doubtless  arouse  as  much  objection  among 
the  ultra-champions  of  one  type  of  gun  as  among  the  ultra- 
champions  of  another.    The  truth  is  that  any  good  modern 


142  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

rifle  is  good  enough.  The  determining  factor  is  the  man 
behind  the  gun. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  we  killed  the  rhino 
Judd  took  me  out  again  to  try  for  hippos,  this  time  in  the 
Rewero,  which  ran  close  by  the  house.  We  rode  upstream 
a  couple  of  miles.  Then  we  sent  back  our  horses  and 
walked  down  the  river  bank  as  quietly  as  possible,  Judd 
scanning  the  pools,  and  the  eddies  in  the  running  stream, 
from  every  point  of  vantage.  Once  we  aroused  a  crocodile, 
which  plunged  into  the  water.  The  stream  was  full  of 
fish^  some  of  considerable  size;  and  in  the  meadow-land  on 
our  side  we  saw  a  gang  of  big,  black  wild-geese  feeding. 
But  we  got  within  half  a  mile  of  McMillan's  house  with- 
out seeing  a  hippo,  and  the  light  was  rapidly  fading. 
Judd  announced  that  we  would  go  home,  but  took  one  last 
look  around  the  next  bend,  and  instantly  sank  to  his  knees, 
beckoning  to  me.  I  crept  forward  on  all-fours,  and  he 
pointed  out  to  me  an  object  in  the  stream,  fifty  yards  off, 
under  the  overhanging  branch  of  a  tree,  which  jutted  out 
from  the  steep  bank  opposite.  In  that  light  I  should  not 
myself  have  recognized  it  as  a  hippo  head;  but  it  was  one, 
looking  tov^ard  us,  with  the  ears  up  and  the  nostrils,  eyes, 
and  forehead  above  water.  I  aimed  for  the  centre;  the 
sound  told  that  the  bullet  had  struck  somewhere  on  the 
head,  and  the  animal  disappeared  without  a  splash.  Judd 
was  sure  I  had  killed,  but  I  was  by  no  means  so  confident 
myself,  and  there  was  no  way  of  telling  until  next  morning, 
for  the  hippo  always  sinks  when  shot  and  does  not  rise  to 
the  surface  for  several  hours.  Accordingly,  back  we  walked 
to  the  house. 

At  sunrise  next  morning  Cuninghame,  Judd,  and  I, 
with  a  crowd  of  porters,  were  down  at  the  spot.  There  was 
a  very  leaky  boat  in  which  Cuninghame,  Judd,  and  I 
embarked,  intending  to  drift  and  paddle  downstream  while 
the  porters  walked  along  the  bank.  We  did  not  have  far 
to  go,  for  as  we  rounded  the  first  point  we  heard  the  por- 
ters break  into  guttural  exclamations  of  delight,  and  there 


Towing  the  hippo  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  photogj-aph  by  \V.  N.  McMillan. 


Landing  the  hippo 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  N.  McMillan 


144  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

ahead  of  us,  by  a  little  island  of  papyrus,  was  the  dead 
hippo.  With  the  help  of  the  boat  it  was  towed  to  a  con- 
venient landing-place,  and  then  the  porters  dragged  it 
ashore.  It  was  a  cow,  of  good  size  for  one  dwelling  in  a 
small  river,  where  they  never  approach  the  dimensions 
of  those  making  their  homes  in  a  great  lake  like  the  Vic- 
toria Nyanza.  This  one  weighed  nearly  two  thousand  eight 
hundred  pounds,  and  I  could  well  believe  that  a  big  lake 
bull  would  weigh  between  three  and  four  tons. 

In  wild  regions  hippos  rest  on  sandy  bars,  and  even 
come  ashore  to  feed,  by  day;  but  wherever  there  are  in- 
habitants they  land  to  feed  only  at  night.  Those  in  the 
Rewero  continually  entered  McMillan's  garden.  Where 
they  are  numerous  they  sometimes  attack  small  boats  and 
kill  the  people  in  them;  and  where  they  are  so  plentiful 
they  do  great  damage  to  the  plantations  of  the  natives,  so 
much  so  that  they  then  have  to  be  taken  off  the  list  of 
preserved  game  and  their  destruction  encouraged.  Their 
enormous  jaws  sweep  in  quantities  of  plants,  or  lush  grass, 
or  corn,  or  vegetables,  at  a  mouthful,  while  their  appetites 
are  as  gigantic  as  their  bodies.  In  spite  of  their  short  legs, 
they  go  at  a  good  gait  on  shore,  but  the  water  is  their  real 
home,  and  they  always  seek  it  when  alarmed.  They 
dive  and  float  wonderfully,  rising  to  the  surface  or  sinking 
to  the  bottom  at  will,  and  they  gallop  at  speed  along  the 
bottoms  of  lakes  or  rivers,  with  their  bodies  wholly  sub- 
merged; but  as  is  natural  enough,  in  view  of  their  big  bodies 
and  short  legs,  they  are  not  fast  swimmers  for  any  length 
of  time.  They  make  curious  and  unmistakable  trails  along 
the  banks  of  any  stream  in  which  they  dwell;  their  short 
legs  are  wide  apart,  and  so  when  they  tread  out  a  path 
they  leave  a  ridge  of  high  soil  down  the  centre.  Where 
they  have  lived  a  long  time,  the  rutted  paths  are  worn 
deep  into  the  soil,  but  always  carry  this  distinguishing 
middle  ridge. 

The  full-jacketed  Winchester  bullet  had  gone  straight 
into  the  brain;    the  jacket  had  lodged  in  the  cranium,  but 


146  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

the  lead  went  on,  entering  the  neck  and  breaking  the  atlas 
vertebra. 

At  Juja  Farm  many  animals  were  kept  in  cages.  They 
included  a  fairly  friendly  leopard,  and  five  lions,  two  of 
which  were  anything  but  friendly.  There  were  three 
cheetahs,  nearly  full-grown;  these  were  continually  taken 
out  on  leashes,  Mrs.  McMillan  strolling  about  with  them 
and  leading  them  to  the  summer-house.  They  were  good- 
tempered,  but  they  did  not  lead  well.  Cheetahs  are  inter- 
esting beasts;  they  are  aberrant  cats,  standing  very  high  on 
their  legs,  and  with  non-retractile  claws  like  a  dog.  They 
are  nearly  the  size  of  a  leopard,  but  are  not  ordinarily 
anything  like  as  ferocious,  and  prey  on  the  smaller  antelope, 
occasionally  taking  something  as  big  as  a  half-grown  kon- 
goni.  For  a  short  run,  up  to  say  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or 
even  perhaps  half  a  mile,  they  are  the  swiftest  animals  on 
earth,  and  with  a  good  start  easily  overtake  the  fastest 
antelope;  but  their  bolt  is  soon  shot,  and  on  the  open  plain 
they  can  readily  be  galloped  down  with  a  horse.  When  they 
sit  on  their  haunches  their  attitude  is  that  neither  of  a  dog 
nor  of  a  cat  so  much  as  of  a  big  monkey.  On  the  whole, 
they  are  much  more  easily  domesticated  than  most  other 
cats,  but,  as  with  all  highly  developed  wild  creatures,  they 
show  great  individual  variability  of  character  and  disposi- 
tion. They  have  a  very  curious  note,  a  birdlike  chirp,  in 
uttering  which  they  twist  the  upper  lip  as  if  whistling.  When 
I  first  heard  it  I  was  sure  that  it  was  uttered  by  some  bird, 
and  looked  about  quite  a  time  before  finding  that  it  was  the 
call  of  a  cheetah. 

Then  there  was  a  tame  wart-hog,  very  friendly,  indeed, 
which  usually  wandered  loose,  and  was  as  comical  as  pigs 
generally  are,  with  its  sudden  starts  and  grunts.  Finally, 
there  was  a  young  tommy  buck  and  a  Grant's  gazelle  doe, 
both  of  which  were  on  good  terms  with  every  one  and 
needed  astonishingly  little  looking  after  to  prevent  their 
straying.  When  I  was  returning  to  the  house  on  the  morn- 
ing I  killed  the  rhinoceros,  I  met  the  string  of  porters  and 


JUJA  FARM;   HIPPO   AND   LEOPARD 


147 


the  ox  wagon  just  after  they  had  left  the  gate  on  their  way 
to  the  carcass.  The  Grant  doe  had  been  attracted  by  the 
departure,  and  was  following  immediately  behind  the  last 
porter;  a  wild-looking  Masai  warrior,  to  whom,  as  1  learned, 
the  especial  care  of  the  gazelle  had  been  intrusted  for  that 
day,  was  running  as  hard  as  he  could  after  her  from  the 
gate;   when  he  overtook  her  he  ran  in  between  her  and  the 


Mrs.  McMillan  and  cheetah 
From  a  pJwtograph  by  W.  N.  McMillan, 


rearmost  porter,  and  headed  her  for  the  farm  gate,  utter- 
ing what  sounded  like  wild  war-cries  and  brandishing  his 
spear.  They  formed  a  really  absurd  couple,  the  little  doe 
slowly  and  decorously  walking  back  to  the  farm,  quite  un- 
moved by  the  clamor  and  threats,  while  her  guardian,  the 
very  image  of  what  a  savage  warrior  should  look  when  on 
the  war-path,  walked  close  behind,  waving  his  spear  and 
uttering  deep-toned  shouts,  with  what  seemed  a  ludicrous 
disproportion  of  effort  to  the  result  needed. 

Antelopes   speedily   become   very   tame   and   recognize 


148  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

clearly  their  friends.  Leslie  Tarlton's  brother  was  keeping 
a  couple  of  young  kongoni  and  a  partly  grown  Grant  on 
his  farm  just  outside  Nairobi.  (The  game  comes  right  to 
the  outskirts  of  Nairobi;  one  morning  Kermit  walked  out 
from  the  McMillans'  town-house,  where  we  were  staying, 
in  company  with  Percival,  the  game  ranger,  and  got  pho- 
tographs of  zebras,  kongoni,  and  Kavirondo  cranes;  and  a 
leopard  sometimes  came  up  through  the  garden  on  to  the 
veranda  of  the  house  itself.)  Tarlton's  young  antelopes 
went  freely  into  the  country  round  about,  but  never  fled 
with  the  wild  herds;  and  they  were  not  only  great  friends 
with  Tarlton's  dogs,  but  recognized  them  as  protectors. 
Hyenas  and  other  beasts  frequently  came  round  the  farm 
after  nightfall,  and  at  their  approach  the  antelopes  fled 
at  speed  to  where  the  dogs  were,  and  then  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  leave  them. 

We  spent  a  delightful  week  at  Juja  Farm,  and  then 
moved  to  Kamiti  Ranch,  the  neighboring  farm,  owned  by 
Mr.  Hugh  H.  Heatley,  who  had  asked  me  to  visit  him  for 
a  buffalo  hunt.  While  in  the  highlands  of  British  East 
Africa  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  a  stranger  to  realize  that 
he  is  under  the  equator;  the  climate  is  delightful  and  healthy. 
It  is  a  white  man's  country,  a  country  w^hich  should  be  filled 
with  white  settlers;  and  no  place  could  be  more  attrac- 
tive for  visitors.  There  is  no  more  danger  to  health  inci- 
dent to  an  ordinary  trip  to  East  Africa  than  there  is  to  an 
ordinary  trip  to  the  Riviera.  Of  course,  if  one  goes  on  a 
hunting  trip  there  is  always  a  certain  amount  of  risk,  in- 
cluding the  risk  of  fever,  just  as  there  would  be  if  a  man 
camped  out  in  some  of  the  Italian  marshes.  But  the  or- 
dinary visitor  need  have  no  more  fear  of  his  health  than  if 
he  were  travelling  in  Italy,  and  it  is  hard  to  imagine  a  trip 
better  worth  making  than  the  trip  from  Mombasa  to  Nairobi 
and  on  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza. 


CHAPTER   VI 


A  BUFFALO  HUNT  BY  THE  KAMITI 


Heatley's  Ranch  comprises  twenty  thousand  acres 
lying  between  the  Rewero  and  Kamiti  Rivers.  It  is  seven- 
teen miles  long,  and  four  across  at  the  widest  place.  It 
includes  some  as  beautiful  bits  of  natural  scenery  as 
can  well  be  imagined, 
and  though  Heatley — a 
thorough  farmer,  and  the 
son  and  grandson  of 
farmers — was  making  it 
a  successful  farm,  with 
large  herds  of  cattle,  much 
improved  stock,  hundreds 
of  acres  under  cultivation, 
a  fine  dairy,  and  the  like, 
yet  it  was  also  a  game  re- 
serve such  as  could  not  be 
matched  either  in  Europe 
or  America.  From  Juja 
Farm  we  marched  a  dozen 
miles  and  pitched  our  tent 
close  beside  the  Kamiti. 
The  Kamiti  is  a  queer 
little  stream,  running  for 

most  of  its  course  through  a  broad  swamp  of  tall  papyrus. 
Such  a  swamp  is  almost  impenetrable.  The  papyrus  grows 
to  a  height  of  over  twenty  feet,  and  the  stems  are  so  close 
together  that  in  most  places  it  is  impossible  to  see  anything 
at  a  distance  of  six  feet.  Ten  yards  from  the  edge,  when 
within  the  swamp,  I  was  wholly  unable  to  tell  in  which 
direction  the  open  ground  lay,  and  could  get  out  only  by 

149 


Heatley  with  two  leopard  cubs  he  caught 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 


150  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

either  following  my  back  track  or  listening  for  voices. 
Underfoot,  the  mud  and  water  are  hip-deep.  This  swamp 
was  the  home  of  a  herd  of  buffalo  numbering  perhaps 
a  hundred  individuals.  They  are  semi-aquatic  beasts,  and 
their  enormous  strength  enables  them  to  plough  through 
the  mud  and  water  and  burst  their  way  among  the  papy- 
rus stems  without  the  slightest  difficulty,  whereas  a  man 
is  nearly  helpless  when  once  he  has  entered  the  reedbeds. 
They  had  made  paths  hither  and  thither  across  the  swamp, 
these  paths  being  three  feet  deep  in  ooze  and  black  water. 
There  were  little  islands  in  the  swamp  on  which  they  could 
rest.  Toward  its  lower  end,  where  it  ran  into  the  Nairobi, 
the  Kamiti  emerged  from  the  papyrus  swamp  and  became 
a  rapid  brown  stream  of  water  with  only  here  and  there  a 
papyrus  cluster  along  its  banks. 

The  Nairobi,  which  cut  across  the  lower  end  of  the 
farm,  and  the  Rewero,  which  bounded  it  on  the  other  side 
from  the  Kamiti,  were  as  different  as  possible  from  the 
latter.  Both  were  rapid  streams  broken  by  riffle  and  water- 
fall, and  running  at  the  bottom  of  tree-clad  valleys.  The 
Nairobi  Falls,  which  were  on  Heatley's  Ranch,  were  sin- 
gularly beautiful.  Heatley  and  I  visited  them  one  evening 
after  sunset,  coming  home  from  a  day's  hunt.  It  was 
a  ride  I  shall  long  remember.  We  left  our  men,  and 
let  the  horses  gallop.  As  the  sun  set  behind  us,  the  long 
lights  changed  the  look  of  the  country  and  gave  it  a  beauty 
that  had  in  it  an  element  of  the  mysterious  and  the  unreal. 
The  mountains  loomed  both  larger  and  more  vague  than 
they  had  been  in  the  bright  sunlight,  and  the  plains  lost 
their  look  of  parched  desolation  as  the  afterglow  came  and 
went.  We  were  galloping  through  a  world  of  dim  shade 
and  dying  color;  and,  in  this  world,  our  horses  suddenly 
halted  on  the  brink  of  a  deep  ravine  from  out  of  which 
came  the  thunder  of  a  cataract.  We  reined  up  on  a  jutting 
point.  The  snowy  masses  of  the  fall  foamed  over  a  ledge 
on  our  right,  and  below  at  our  feet  was  a  great  pool  of 
swirling    water.      Thick-foliaged    trees,    of  strange    shape 


A  BUFFALO  HUNT  BY  THE  KAMITI 


151 


and  festooned  with  creepers,  climbed  the  sheer  sides  of  the 
ravine.      A    black-and-white    eagle    perched    in    a    blasted 


Falls  on  the  Rewero  River 
From  a  plwto^aph  by  Edmund  Hclier 


tree  top  in  front;   and  the  bleached  skull  of  a  long-dead 

rhinoceros   glimmered  white   near  the   brink  to   one    side. 

On  another  occasion  we  took  our  lunch  at  the  foot  of 


152  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Rewero  Falls.  These  are  not  as  high  as  the  falls  of  the 
Nairobi,  but  they  are  almost  as  beautiful.  We  clambered 
down  into  the  ravine  a  little  distance  below  and  made  our 
way  toward  them,  beside  the  brawling,  rock-choked  tor- 
rent. Great  trees  towered  overhead,  and  among  their  tops 
the  monkeys  chattered  and  screeched.  The  fall  itself  was 
broken  in  two  parts  like  a  miniature  Niagara,  and  the 
spray  curtain  shifted  to  and  fro  as  the  wind  blew. 

The  lower  part  of  the  farm,  between  the  Kamiti  and 
Rewero  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Nairobi,  consisted  of 
immense  rolling  plains,  and  on  these  the  game  swarmed 
in  almost  incredible  numbers.  There  were  Grant's  and 
Thomson's  gazelles,  of  which  we  shot  one  or  two  for  the 
table.  There  was  a  small  herd  of  blue  wildebeest,  and 
among  them  one  unusually  large  bull  with  an  unusually 
fine  head;  Kermit  finally  killed  him.  There  were  plenty 
of  wart-hogs,  which  were  to  be  found  feeding  right  out  in 
the  open,  both  in  the  morning  and  the  evening. .  One  day 
Kermit  got  a  really  noteworthy  sow  with  tusks  much  longer 
than  those  of  the  average  boar.  He  ran  into  her  on  horse- 
back after  a  sharp  chase  of  a  mile  or  two,  and  shot  her 
from  the  saddle  as  he  galloped  nearly  alongside,  holding 
his  rifle  as  the  old  buffalo-runners  used  to  hold  theirs, 
that  is,  not  bringing  it  to  his  shoulder,  I  killed  two  or  three 
half-grown  pigs  for  the  table,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I 
missed  several  chances  at  good  boars.  Finally  one  day  I 
got  up  to  just  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  a  good  boar 
as  he  stood  broadside  to  me;  firing  with  the  little  Spring- 
field I  put  the  bullet  through  both  shoulders,  and  he  was 
dead  when  we  came  up. 

But  of  course  the  swarms  of  game  consisted  of  zebra 
and  hartebeest.  At  no  time,  when  riding  in  any  direction 
across  these  plains,  were  we  ever  out  of  sight  of  them. 
Sometimes  they  would  act  warily  and  take  the  alarm  when 
we  were  a  long  distance  off.  At  other  times  herds  would 
stand  and  gaze  at  us  while  we  passed  within  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards.     One  afternoon  we  needed  meat  for  the 


A  BUFFALO  HUNT  BY  THE   KAMITI 


15S 


safari,  and  Cuninghame  and  I  rode  out  to  get  it.  Within 
half  a  mile  we  came  upon  big  herds  both  of  hartebeest  and 
zebra.  They  stood  to  give  me  long-range  shots  at  about 
three  hundred  yards.  I  wounded  a  zebra,  after  which 
Cuninghame  rode.     While  he  was  off,  I  killed  first  a  zebra 


Wildebeest  bull  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kamiti 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

and  then  a  hartebeest,  and  shortly  afterward  a  cloud  of  dust 
announced  that  Cuninghame  was  bringing  a  herd  of  game 
toward  me.  I  knelt  motionless,  and  the  long  files  of  red- 
coated  hartebeest  and  brilliantly  striped  zebra  came  gallop- 
ing past.  They  were  quite  a  distance  off,  but  I  had  time 
for  several  shots  at  each  animal  I  selected,  and  I  dropped 
one  more  zebra  and  one  more  hartebeest,   in  addition,  I 


154  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

regret  to  add,  to  wounding  another  hartebeest.  The  four 
hartebeest  and  zebra  lay  within  a  space  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile;  and  half  a  mile  further  I  bagged  a  tommy  at  two 
hundred  yards — his  meat  was  for  our  own  table,  the  kon- 
goni  and  the  zebra  being  for  the  safari. 

On  another  day,  when  Heatley  and  I  were  out  together, 
he  stationed  me  among  some  thin  thorn-bushes  on  a  little 
knoll,  and  drove  the  game  by  me,  hoping  to  get  me  a  shot 
at  some  wildebeest.  The  scattered  thorn-bushes  were  only 
four  or  five  feet  high,  and  so  thin  that  there  was  no  diffi- 
culty in  looking  through  them  and  marking  every  move- 
ment of  the  game  as  it  approached.  The  wildebeest  took 
the  wrong  direction  and  never  came  near  me — though  they 
certainly  fared  as  badly  as  if  they  had  done  so,  for  they 
passed  by  Kermit,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  he 
killed  the  big  bull.  A  fine  cock  ostrich  passed  me  and  I 
much  wished  to  shoot  at  him,  but  did  not  like  to  do  so, 
because  ostrich-farming  is  one  of  the  staple  industries  of. 
the  region,  and  it  is  not  well  to  have  even  the  wild  birds 
shot.  The  kongoni  and  the  zebra  streamed  by  me,  herd 
after  herd,  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them,  many  passing 
within  fifty  yards  of  my  shelter,  now  on  one  side,  now  on 
the  other;  they  went  at  an  easy  lope,  and  I  was  interested 
to  see  that  many  of  the  kongoni  ran  with  their  mouths 
open.  This  is  an  attitude  which  we  usually  associate  with 
exhaustion,  but  such  cannot  have  been  the  case  with  the 
kongoni — they  had  merely  cantered  for  a  mile  or  so.  The 
zebra  were,  as  usual,  noisy,  a  number  of  them  uttering 
their  barking  neigh  as  they  passed.  I  do  not  know  how  it 
is  ordinarily,  but  these  particular  zebra,  all  stallions  by  the 
way,  kept  their  mouths  open  throughout  the  time  they  were 
neighing,  and  their  ears  pricked  forward;  they  did;  not 
keep  their  mouths  open  while  merely  galloping,  as  did  the 
kongoni.  We  had  plenty  of  meat,  and  the  naturalists  had 
enough  specimens;  and  I  was  glad  that  there  was  no  need 
to  harm  the  beautiful  creatures.  They  passed  so  close 
that  I  could  mark  every  slight  movement,  and  the  ripple  of 


A  BUFFALO    HUNT   BY   THE   KAJSIITI 


155 


the  muscles  under  the  skin.  The  very  young  fawns  of  the 
kongoni  seemed  to  have  httle  fear  of  a  horseman,  if  he  ap- 
proached while  they  were  lying  motionless  on  the  ground; 
but  they  would  run  from  a  man  on  foot. 

There  were  interesting  birds,  too.  Close  by  the  woods 
at  the  river's  edge,  we  saw  a  big  black  ground  hornbill 
walking  about,  on  the  lookout  for  its  usual  dinner  of  small 
snakes  and  lizards.    Large  flocks  of  the  beautiful  Kavirondo 


Whydah  birds'  dancing-ring 
Fro}K  a  photograph  by  Kerntit  Roosevelt 


cranes  stalked  over  the  plains  and  cultivated  fields,  or  flew 
by  with  mournful,  musical  clangor.  But  the  most  interest- 
ing birds  we  saw  were  the  black  whydah  finches.  The 
female  is  a  dull-colored,  ordinary-looking  bird,  somewhat 
like  a  female  bobolink.  The  male  in  his  courtship  dress  is 
clad  in  a  uniform  dark  glossy  suit,  and  his  tail-feathers 
are  almost  like  some  of  those  of  a  barn-yard  rooster,  being 
over  twice  as  long  as  the  rest  of  the  bird,  with  a  downward 
curve  at  the  tips.  The  females  were  generally  found  in 
flocks,  in  which  there  would  often  be  a  goodly  number  of 
males  also,  and  when  the  flocks  put  on  speed  the  males 
tended  to  drop  behind.     The  flocks  were  feeding  in  Heat- 


156  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

ley's  grain-fields,  and  he  was  threatening  vengeance  upon 
them.  I  was  sorry,  for  the  male  birds  certainly  have  habits 
of  peculiar  interest.  They  were  not  shy,  although  if  we 
approached  too  near  them  in  their  favorite  haunts,  the 
grassland  adjoining  the  papyrus  beds,  they  would  fly  off 
and  perch  on  the  tops  of  the  papyrus  stems.  The  long 
tail  hampers  the  bird  in  its  flight,  and  it  is  often  held  at 
rather  an  angle  downward,  giving  the  bird  a  peculiar  and 
almost  insect-like  appearance.  But  the  marked  and  ex- 
traordinary peculiarity  was  the  custom  the  cocks  had  of 
dancing  in  artificially  made  dancing-rings.  For  a  mile  and 
a  half  beyond  our  camp,  down  the  course  of  the  Kamiti, 
the  grassland  at  the  edge  of  the  papyrus  was  thickly  strewn 
with  these  dancing-rings.  Each  was  about  two  feet  in  di- 
ameter, sometimes  more,  sometimes  less.  A  tuft  of  grow- 
ing grass  perhaps  a  foot  high  was  left  in  the  centre.  Over 
the  rest  of  the  ring  the  grass  was  cut  off  close  by  the  roots, 
and  the  blades  strewn  evenly  over  the  surface  of  the  ring. 
The  cock  bird  would  alight  in  the  ring  and  hop  to  a 
height  of  a  couple  of  feet,  wings  spread  and  motionless,  tail 
drooping,  and  the  head  usually  thrown  back.  As  he  came 
down  he  might  or  might  not  give  an  extra  couple  of  little 
hops.  After  a  few  seconds  he  would  repeat  the  motion, 
sometimes  remaining  almost  in  the  same  place,  at  other 
times  going  forward  during  and  between  the  hops  so  as 
finally  to  go  completely  round  the  ring.  As  there  were 
many  scores  of  these  dancing-places  within  a  compara- 
tivety  limited  territory,  the  effect  was  rather  striking  when 
a  large  number  of  birds  were  dancing  at  the  same  time.  As 
one  walked  along,  the  impression  conveyed  by  the  birds 
continually  popping  above  the  grass  and  then  immediately 
sinking  back,  was  somewhat  as  if  a  man  was  making  peas 
jump  in  a  tin  tray  by  tapping  on  it.  The  favorite  dancifig 
times  were  in  the  early  morning,  and,  to  a  less  extent,  in  the 
evening.  We  saw  dancing-places  of  every  age,  some  with  the 
cut  grass  which  strewed  the  floor  green  and  fresh,  others  with 
the  grass  dried  into  hay  and  the  bare  earth  showing  through. 


A  BUFFALO  HUNT  BY  THE  KAMITI 


157 


But  the  game  we  were  after  was  the  buffalo  herd  that 
haunted  the  papyrus  swamp.  As  I  have  said  before,  the 
buffalo  is  by  many  hunters  esteemed  the  most  dangerous  of 
African  game.     It  is  an  enormously  powerful  beast  with,  in 


■^v '  ''y 

'-' 

UK         / 

/ 1' . 

■ '  ■ 'i 

^  *)'n-\  /  „ 

mam 

'•  ~#i^- 7  ^?  ;r*'^3 

K 

^U^t 

WHeie^Hi^S^ 

''^\ 

'  I- 

hhH^BH 

^•■- "" 

Heatley  and  a  buffalo  path 

Showing  how  the  enormous  strength  of  the  buffalo  enables  him  to  burst  his  way 
among  the  papyrus  stems  which  grow  to  a  height  of  over  twenty  feet 

From  a  photograph  by  Kerniit  Roosevelt 


this  country,  a  coat  of  black  hair  which  becomes  thin  in  the 
old  bulls,  and  massive  horns  which  rise  into  great  bosses  at 
the  base,  these  bosses  sometimes  meeting  in  old  age  so  as 
to  cover  the  forehead  with  a  frontlet  of  horn.  Their  habits 
vary  much  in  different  places.  Where  they  are  much 
persecuted,  they  lie  in  the  densest  cover,  and  only  venture 


158  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

out  into  the  open  to  feed  at  night.  But  Heatley,  though 
he  himself  had  killed  a  couple  of  bulls,  and  the  Boer  farmer 
who  was  working  for  him  another,  had  preserved  the  herd 
from  outside  molestation,  and  their  habits  were  doubtless 
much  what  they  would  have  been  in  regions  where  man  is 
a  rare  visitor. 

The  first  day  we  were  on  Heatley's  farm,  we  saw  the 
buffalo,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty,  grazing  in  the 
open,  some  hundreds  of  yards  from  the  papyrus  swamp, 
and  this  shortly  after  noon.  For  a  mile  from  the  papyrus 
swamp  the  country  was  an  absolutely  flat  plain,  gradually 
rising  into  a  gentle  slope,  and  it  was  an  impossibility  to 
approach  the  buffalo  across  this  plain  save  in  one  way  to 
be  mentioned  hereafter.  Probably  when  the  moon  was 
full  the  buffalo  came  out  to  graze  by  night.  But  while  we 
were  on  our  hunt  the  moon  was  young,  and  the  buffalo 
evidently  spent  most  of  the  night  in  the  papyrus,  and  came 
out  to  graze  by  day.  Sometimes  they  came  out  in  the  early 
morning,  sometimes  in  the  late  evening,  but  quite  as  often 
in  the  bright  daylight.  We  saw  herds  come  out  to  graze  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  again  at  three  in  the  after- 
noon. They  usually  remained  out  several  hours,  first  graz- 
ing and  then  lying  down.  Flocks  of  the  small  white  cow- 
heron  usually  accompanied  them,  the  birds  stalking  about 
among  them  or  perching  on  their  backs;  and  occasionally 
the  whereabouts  of  the  herd  in  the  papyrus  swamp  could 
be  determined  by  seeing  the  flock  of  herons  perched  on  the 
papyrus  tops.  We  did  not  see  any  of  the  red-billed  tick- 
birds  on  the  buffalo;  indeed,  the  only  ones  that  we  saw  in 
this  neighborhood  happened  to  be  on  domestic  cattle — in 
other  places  we  found  them  very  common  on  rhinoceros.  At 
night  the  buffalo  sometimes  came  right  into  the  cultivated 
fields,  and  even  into  the  garden  close  by  the  Boer  farmer's 
house;  and  once  at  night  he  had  shot  a  bull.  The  bullet 
went  through  the  heart  but  the  animal  ran  to  the  papyrus 
swamp,  and  was  found  next  day  dead  just  within  the  edge. 
Usually  the  main  herd,  of  buUs,  cows,  and  calves,  kept  to- 


A  BUFFALO    HUNT  BY  THE  KAMITI  159 

gether;  but  there  were  outlying  bulls  found  singly  or  in 
small  parties.  Not  only  the  natives  but  the  whites  were  in- 
clined to  avoid  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  papy- 
rus swamp,  for  there  had  been  one  or  two  narrow  escapes 
from  unprovoked  attacks  by  the  buffalo.  The  farmer  told 
us  that  a  man  who  was  coming  to  see  him  had  been  regu- 
larly followed  by  three  bulls,  who  pursued  him  for  quite  a 
distance.  There  is  no  doubt  that  under  certain  circum- 
stances buffalo,  in  addition  to  showing  themselves  exceed- 
ingly dangerous  opponents  when  wounded  by  hunters,  be- 
come truculent  and  inclined  to  take  the  offensive  themselves. 
There  are  places  in  East  Africa  where  as  regards  at  least 
certain  herds  this  seems  to  be  the  case;  and  in  Uganda  the 
buffalo  have  caused  such  loss  of  life,  and  such  damage  to  the 
native  plantations,  that  they  are  now  ranked  as  vermin  and 
not  as  game,  and  their  killing  is  encouraged  in  every  possi- 
ble way.  The  list  of  white  hunters  that  have  been  killed 
by  buffalo  is  very  long,  and  includes  a  number  of  men  of 
note,  while  accidents  to  natives  are  of  constant  occurrence. 
The  morning  after  making  our  camp,  we  started  at  dawn 
for  the  buffalo  ground,  Kermit  and  I,  Cuninghame  and 
Heatley,  and  the  Boer  farmer  with  three  big,  powerful 
dogs.  We  walked  near  the  edge  of  the  swamp.  The  why- 
dah  birds  were  continually  bobbing  up  and  down  in  front 
of  us  as  they  rose  and  fell  on  their  dancing-places,  while 
the  Kavirondo  cranes  called  mournfully  all  around.  Be- 
fore we  had  gone  two  miles,  buffalo  were  spied,  well  ahead, 
feeding  close  to  the  papyrus.  The  line  of  the  papyrus 
which  marked  the  edge  of  the  swamp  was  not  straight,  but 
broken  by  projections  and  indentations;  and  by  following  it 
closely  and  cutting  cautiously  across  the  points,  the  oppor- 
tunity for  stalking  was  good.  As  there  was  not  a  tree  of 
any  kind  anywhere  near,  we  had  to  rely  purely  on  our 
shooting  to  prevent  damage  from  the  buffalo.  Kermit  and 
I  had  our  double-barrels,  with  the  Winchesters  as  spare 
guns,  while  Cuninghame  carried  a  577,  and  Heatley  a 
magazine  rifle. 


160  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Cautiously  threading  our  way  along  the  edge  of  the 
swamp,  we  got  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the 
buffalo  before  we  were  perceived.  There  were  four  bulls, 
grazing  close  by  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  their  black  bodies 
glistening  in  the  early  sun-rays,  their  massive  horns  show- 
ing white,  and  the  cow-herons  perched  on  their  backs. 
They  stared  sullenly  at  us  with  out-stretched  heads  from 
under  their  great  frontlets  of  horn.  The  biggest  of  the  four 
stood  a  little  out  from  the  other  three,  and  at  him  I  fired, 
the  bullet  telling  with  a  smack  on  the  tough  hide  and  going 
through  the  lungs.  We  had  been  afraid  they  would  at  once 
turn  into  the  papyrus,  but  instead  of  this  they  started 
straight  across  our  front  directly  for  the  open  country. 
This  was  a  piece  of  huge  good  luck.  Kermit  put  his  first 
barrel  into  the  second  bull,  and  I  my  second  barrel  into  one 
of  the  others,  after  which  it  became  impossible  to  say  which 
bullet  struck  which  animal,  as  the  firing  became  general. 
They  ran  a  quarter  of  a  mile  into  the  open,  and  then  the 
big  bull  I  had  first  shot,  and  which  had  no  other  bullet  in 
him,  dropped  dead,  while  the  other  three,  all  of  which  were 
wounded,  halted  beside  him.  We  walked  toward  them, 
rather  expecting  a  charge;  but  when  we  were  still  over  two 
hundred  yards  away  they  started  back  for  the  swamp, 
and  we  began  firing.  The  distance  being  long,  I  used 
my  Winchester.  Aiming  well  before  one  bull,  he  dropped 
to  the  shot  as  if  pole-axed,  falling  straight  on  his  back  with 
his  legs  kicking;  but  in  a  moment  he  was  up  again  and 
after  the  others.  Later  I  found  that  the  bullet,  a  full- 
metal  patch,  had  struck  him  in  the  head  but  did  not  pene- 
trate to  the  brain,  and  merely  stunned  him  for  the  moment. 
All  the  time  we  kept  running  diagonally  to  their  line  of  flight. 
They  were  all  three  badly  wounded,  and  when  they  reached 
the  tall  rank  grass,  high  as  a  man's  head,  which  fringed 
the  papyrus  swamp,  the  two  foremost  lay  down,  while 
the  last  one,  the  one  I  had  floored  with  the  Winchester, 
turned,  and  with  nose  out-stretched  began  to  come  toward 
us.      He  was   badly  crippled,   however,   and   with   a   soft- 


■T  I"   "      "  ■\t--t 


f-^w'r<^hi\f^-"'*'' 


Mr.  Roosevelt  aad  Kerrait  Roosevelt  with  the  first  buffalo 


162  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

nosed  bullet  from  my  heavy  Holland  I  knocked  him  down, 
this  time  for  good.  The  other  two  then  rose,  and  though 
each  was  again  hit  they  reached  the  swamp,  one  of  them 
to  our  right,  the  other  to  the  left  where  the  papyrus  came 
out  in  a  point. 

We  decided  to  go  after  the  latter,  and  advancing  very 
cautiously  toward  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  put  in  the  three 
big  dogs.  A  moment  after,  they  gave  tongue  within  the 
papyrus;  then  we  heard  the  savage  grunt  of  the  buffalo  and 
saw  its  form  just  within  the  reeds;  and  as  the  rifles  cracked, 
down  it  went.  But  it  was  not  dead,  for  we  heard  it  grunt 
savagely,  and  the  dogs  bayed  as  loudly  as  ever.  Heatley 
now  mounted  his  trained  shooting-pony  and  rode  toward 
the  place,  while  we  covered  him  with  our  rifles,  his  plan 
being  to  run  right  across  our  front  if  the  bull  charged.  The 
bull  was  past  charging,  lying  just  within  the  reeds,  but  he 
was  still  able  to  do  damage,  for  in  another  minute  one  of 
the  dogs  came  out  by  us  and  ran  straight  back  to  the  farm- 
house, where  we  found  him  dead  on  our  return.  He  had 
been  caught  by  the  buffalo's  horns  when  he  went  in  too 
close.  Heatley,  a  daring  fellow,  with  great  confidence  in 
both  his  horse  and  his  rifle,  pushed  forward  as  we  came  up, 
and  saw  the  bull  lying  on  the  ground  while  the  two  other 
dogs  bit  and  worried  it;  and  he  put  a  buflet  through  its  head. 

The  remaining  bull  got  off  into  the  swamp,  where  a 
week  later  Heatley  found  his  dead  body.  Fortunately 
the  head  proved  to  be  in  less  good  condition  than  any  of 
the  others,  as  one  horn  was  broken  off  about  half-way  up; 
so  that  if  any  of  the  four  had  to  escape,  it  was  well  that  this 
should  have  been  the  one. 

Our  three  bulls  were  fine  trophies.  The  largest,  with 
the  largest  horns,  was  the  first  killed,  being  the  one  that 
fell  to  my  first  bullet;  yet  it  was  the  youngest  of  the  three. 
The  other  two  were  old  bulls.  The  second  one  killed  had 
smaller  horns  than  the  other,  but  the  bosses  met  in  the 
middle  of  the  forehead  for  a  space  of  several  inches,  mak- 
ing a  solid  shield.     I  had  just  been  reading  a  pamphlet  by 


A  BUFFALO    HUNT  BY   THE   KAJVIITI 


163 


a  German  specialist  who  had  divided  the  African  buffalo 
into  fifteen  or  twenty  different  species,  based  upon  differ- 
ences in  various  pairs  of  horns.     The  worth  of  such  fine 


Cuninghame,  Kermit,  Mr.  Ruosevelt,  Heller,  and  lleatley  at  buffalo  camp 


distinctions,  when  made  on  insufficient  data,  can  be  gath- 
ered from  the  fact  that  on  the  principles  of  specific  divi- 
sion adopted  in  the  pamphlet  in  question,  the  three  bulls  we 
had  shot  would  have  represented  certainly  two  and  possi- 
bly three  different  species. 


164  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Heller  was  soon  on  the  ground  with  his  skinning-tcnt 
and  skinners,  and  the  Boer  farmer  went  back  to  fetch  the 
ox  wagon  on  which  the  skins  and  meat  were  brought  in 
to  camp.  Laymen  can  hardly  realize,  and  I  certainly  did 
not  realize,  what  an  immense  amount  of  work  is  involved 
in  preparing  the  skins  of  large  animals  such  as  buffalo, 
rhino,  hippo,  and  above  all  elephant,  in  hot  climates.  On 
this  first  five  weeks'  trip  we  got  over  seventy  skins,  includ- 
ing twenty-two  species  ranging  in  size  from  a  dikdik  to  a 
rhino,  and  all  of  these  Heller  prepared  and  sent  to  the  Smith- 
sonian. Mearns  and  Loring  were  just  as  busy  shooting  birds 
and  trapping  small  mammals.  Often  while  Heller  would  be 
off  for  a  few  days  with  Kermit  and  myself,  Mearns  and  Loring 
would  be  camped  elsewhere,  in  a  region  better  suited  for  the 
things  they  were  after.  While  at  Juja  Farm  they  went  down 
the  Nairobi  in  a  boat  to  shoot  water  birds,  and  saw  many 
more  crocodiles  and  hippo  than  I  did.  Loring  is  a  rem.ark- 
ably  successful  trapper  of  small  mammals.  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  a  better  collector  anywhere.  Dr.  Mearns,  in  addition 
to  birds  and  plants,  never  let  pass  the  opportunity  to  collect 
anything  else  from  reptiles  and  fishes  to  land  shells.  More- 
over, he  was  the  best  shot  in  our  party.  He  killed  two  great 
bustards  with  the  rifle,  and  occasionally  shot  birds  like 
vultures  on  the  wing  with  a  rifle.  I  do  not  believe  that 
three  better  men  than  Mearns,  Heller,  and  Loring,  for  such 
an  expedition  as  ours,  could  be  found  anywhere. 

It  was  three  days  later  before  we  were  again  successful 
with  buffalo.  On  this  occasion  we  started  about  eight  in 
the  morning,  having  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  herd 
was  more  apt  to  leave  the  papyrus  late  than  early.  Our 
special  object  was  to  get  a  cow.  We  intended  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  a  small  half-dried  watercourse,  an  aflfluent  of 
the  Kamiti,  which  began  a  mile  beyond  where  we  had 
killed  our  bulls,  and  for  three  or  four  miles  ran  in  a  course 
generally  parallel  to  the  swamp,  and  at  a  distance  which 
varied,  but  averaged  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  When 
we  reached  the  beginning  of  this  watercourse,  we  left  our 


^     '^ 


-5  ^ 


P^'i 


A  BUFFALO   HUNT   BY  THE   KAMITI  167 

horses  and  walked  along  it.  Like  all  such  watercourses,  it 
wound  in  curves.  The  banks  were  four  or  five  feet  high, 
the  bottom  was  sometimes  dry  and  sometimes  contained 
reedy  pools,  while  at  intervals  there  were  clumps  of  papy- 
rus. Heatley  went  ahead,  and  just  as  we  had  about  con- 
cluded that  the  buffalo  would  not  come  out,  he  came  back 
to  tell  us  that  he  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  several,  and  be- 
lieved that  the  main  herd  was  with  them.  Cuninghame,  a 
veteran  hunter  and  first-class  shot,  than  whom  there  could  be 
no  better  man  to  have  with  one  when  after  dangerous  game, 
took  charge  of  our  further  movements.  We  crept  up  the 
watercourse  imtil  about  opposite  the  bufi^alo,  which  were 
now  lying  down.  Cuninghame  peered  cautiously  at  them, 
saw  there  were  two  or  three,  and  then  led  us  on  all-fours 
toward  them.  There  were  patches  where  the  grass  was  short, 
and  other  places  where  it  was  three  feet  high,  and  after  a  good 
deal  of  cautious  crawling  we  had  covered  half  the  distance 
toward  them,  when  one  of  them  made  us  out,  and  several 
rose  from  their  beds.  They  were  still  at  least  two  hundred 
yards  off — a  long  range  for  heavy  rifles;  but  any  closer 
approach  was  impossible,  and  we  fired.  Both  the  leading 
bulls  were  hit,  and  at  the  shots  there  rose  from  the  grass  not 
half  a  dozen  buffalo,  but  seventy  or  eighty,  and  started  at  a 
gallop  parallel  to  the  swamp  and  across  our  front.  In  the 
rear  were  a  number  of  cows  and  calves,  and  I  at  once  sin- 
gled out  a  cow  and  fired.  She  plunged  forward  at  the  shot 
and  turned  toward  the  swamp,  going  slowly  and  dead  lame, 
for  my  bullet  had  struck  the  shoulder  and  had  gone  into  the 
cavity  of  the  chest.  But  at  this  moment  our  attention  was 
distracted  from  the  wounded  cow  by  the  conduct  of  the 
herd,  which,  headed  by  the  wounded  bulls,  turned  in  a 
quarter-circle  toward  us,  and  drew  up  in  a  phalanx  facing 
us  with  out-stretched  heads.  It  was  not  a  nice  country  in 
which  to  be  charged  by  the  herd,  and  for  a  moment  things 
trembled  in  the  balance.  There  was  a  perceptible  motion 
of  uneasiness  among  some  of  our  followers.  "Stand  steady! 
Don't  run!"  I  called  out.    ''And  don't  shoot!"  called  out 


168 


AFRICAN   GA^IE  TRAILS 


Cuninghame ;  for  to  do  either  would  invite  a  charge.  A  few 
seconds  passed,  and  then  the  unwounded  mass  of  the  herd 
resumed  their  flight,  and  after  a  Httle  hesitation  the  wounded 
bulls  followed.  We  now  turned  our  attention  to  the  wounded 
cow,  which  was  close  to  the  papyrus.  She  went  down  to 
our  shots,  but  the  reeds  and  marsh-grass  were  above  our 


Third  buffalo  bull  shot  in  the  swamp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmntid  Heller 

heads  when  we  drew  close  to  the  swamp.  Once  again 
Heatley  went  in  with  his  white  horse,  as  close  as  it  was  even 
reasonably  safe,  with  the  hope  either  of  seeing  the  cow, 
or  of  getting  her  to  charge  him  and  so  give  us  a  fair  chance 
at  her.  But  nothing  happened  and  we  loosed  the  two  dogs. 
They  took  up  the  trail  and  went  some  little  distance  into  the 
papyrus,  where  we  heard  them  give  tongue,  and  immedi- 
ately afterward  there  came  the  angry  grunt  of  the  wounded 
buffalo.  It  had  risen  and  gone  off  thirty  yards  into  the 
papyrus,  although  mortally  wounded — the  frothy  blood 
from  the  lungs  was  actually  coming  out  of  my  first  bullet- 


A  BUFFALO   HUNT  BY  THE   KAMITI  168 

hole.  Its  anger  now  made  it  foolish,  and  it  followed  the 
dogs  to  the  edge  of  the  papyrus.  Here  we  caught  a  glimpse 
of  it.  Down  it  went  to  our  shots,  and  in  a  minute  we  heard 
the  moaning  bellow  which  a  wounded  buffalo  often  gives  be- 
fore dying.  Immediately  afterward  we  could  hear  the  dogs 
worrying  it,  while  it  bellowed  again.  It  was  still  living  as  I 
came  up,  and  though  it  evidently  could  not  rise,  there  was  a 
chance  of  its  damaging  one  of  the  dogs,  so  I  finished  it  off 
with  a  shot  from  the  Winchester.  Heller  reached  it  that 
afternoon,  and  the  skin  and  meat  were  brought  in  by  the 
porters  before  nightfall. 

Cuninghame  remained  with  the  body  while  the  rest  of 
us  rode  off  and  killed  several  different  animals  we  wanted. 
In  the  afternoon  I  returned,  having  a  vaguely  uncomfort- 
able feeling  that  as  it  grew  dusk  the  buffalo  might  possi- 
bly make  their  appearance  again.  Sure  enough,  there  they 
were.  A  number  of  them  were  in  the  open  plain,  although 
close  to  the  swamp,  a  mile  and  a  half  beyond  the  point 
where  the  work  of  cutting  up  the  cow  was  just  being  fin- 
ished, and  the  porters  were  preparing  to  start  with  their 
loads.  It  seemed  very  strange  that  after  their  experience  in 
the  morning  any  of  the  herd  should  be  willing  to  come  into 
the  open  so  soon.  But  there  they  were.  They  were  grazing 
to  the  number  of  about  a  dozen.  Looking  at  them  through 
the  glasses  I  could  see  that  their  attention  was  attracted  to 
us.  They  gazed  at  us  for  quite  a  time,  and  then  walked 
slowly  in  our  direction  for  at  least  a  couple  of  hundred  yards. 
For  a  moment  I  was  even  doubtful  whether  they  did  not 
intend  to  come  toward  us  and  charge.  But  it  was  only 
curiosity  on  their  part,  and  after  having  gazed  their  fill,  they 
sauntered  back  to  the  swamp  and  disappeared.  There 
was  no  chance  to  get  at  them,  and  moreover  darkness  w^as 
rapidly  falling. 

Next  morning  we  broke  camp.  The  porters,  strapping 
grown-up  children  that  they  were,  felt  as  much  pleasure 
and  excitement  over  breaking  camp  after  a  few  days'  rest 
as  over  reaching  camp  after  a  fifteen-mile  march.     On  this 


170  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

occasion,  after  they  had  made  up  their  loads,  they  danced 
in  a  ring  for  half  an  hour,  two  tin  cans  being  beaten  as 
tomtoms.  Then  off  they  strode  in  a  long  line  with  their 
burdens,  following  one  another  in  Indian  file,  each  greet- 
ing me  with  a  smile  and  a  deep  "Yambo,  Bwana!"  as 
he  passed.  I  had  grown  attached  to  them,  and  of  course 
especially  to  my  tent  boys,  gun-bearers,  and  saises,  who  quite 
touched  me  by  their  evident  pleasure  in  coming  to  see  me 
and  greet  me  if  I  happened  to  be  away  from  them  for  two 
or  three  days. 

Kermit  and  I  rode  off  with  Heatley  to  pass  the  night  at 
his  house.  This  was  at  the  other  end  of  his  farm,  in  a 
totally  different  kind  of  country,  a  country  of  wooded  hills, 
with  glades  and  dells  and  long  green  grass  in  the  valleys. 
It  did  not  in  the  least  resemble  what  one  would  naturally 
expect  in  equatorial  Africa.  On  the  contrary  it  reminded 
me  of  the  beautiful  rolling  wooded  country  of  middle  Wis- 
consin. But  of  course  everything  was  really  different.  There 
were  monkeys  and  leopards  in  the  forests,  and  we  saw 
whydah  birds  of  a  new  kind,  with  red  on  the  head  and 
throat,  and  brilliantly  colored  woodpeckers,  and  black-and- 
gold  weaver-birds.  Indeed,  the  wealth  of  bird  life  was 
such  that  it  cannot  be  described.  Here,  too,  there  were 
many  birds  with  musical  voices,  to  which  we  listened  in  the 
early  morning.  The  best  timber  was  yielded  by  the  tall 
mahogo-tree,  a  kind  of  sandal-wood.  This  was  the  tree 
selected  by  the  wild  fig  for  its  deadly  embrace.  The  wild 
fig  begins  as  a  huge  parasitic  vine,  and  ends  as  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  stately,  and  also  one  of  the  greenest  and 
most  shady,  trees  in  this  part  of  Africa.  It  grows  up  the 
mahogo  as  a  vine  and  gradually,  by  branching,  and  by  the 
spreading  of  the  branches,  completely  envelops  the  trunk 
and  also  grows  along  each  limb,  and  sends  out  great  limbs 
of  its  own.  Every  stage  can  be  seen,  from  that  in  which 
the  big  vine  has  begun  to  grow  up  along  the  still  flourishing 
mahogo,  through  that  in  which  the  tree  looks  like  a  curious 
composite,  the  limbs  and  thick  foliage  of  the  fig  branching 


172 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


out  among  the  limbs  and  scanty  foliage  ot  the  still  living 
mahogo,  to  the  stage  in  which  the  mahogo  is  simply  a  dead 
skeleton  seen  here  and  there  through  the  trunk  or  the  foliage 


Heller  preparing  to  send  off  game  heads  of  the  first  five  weeks'  shooting 
From  a  phofogrnpli  by  Kerjnit  Roose7<elt 


of  the  fig.     Finally  nothing  remains  but  the  fig,  which  grows 
to  be  a  huge  tree. 

Heatley's  house  was  charming,  with  its  vine-shaded 
veranda,  its  summer-house  and  out-buildings,  and  the 
great  trees  clustered  round  about.  He  was  fond  of  sport  in 
the  right  way,  that  is,  he  treated  it  as  sport  and  not  busi- 


A  BUFFALO    HUNT   BY   THE    KAMITI  ITS 

ness,  and  did  not  allow  it  to  interfere  with  his  prime  work 
of  being  a  successful  farmer.  He  had  big  stock-yards 
for  his  cattle  and  swine,  and  he  was  growing  all  kinds  of 
things  of  both  the  temperate  and  the  tropic  zones:  wheat 
and  apples,  coffee  and  sugar-cane.  The  bread  we  ate 
and  the  coffee  we  drank  were  made  from  what  he  had 
grown  on  his  own  farm.  There  were  roses  in  the  garden 
and  great  bushes  of  heliotrope  by  the  veranda,  and  the 
drive  to  his  place  was  bordered  by  trees  from  Australia 
and  beds  of  native  flowers. 

Next  day  we  went  into  Nairobi,  where  we  spent  a  most 
busy  week,  especially  the  three  naturalists;  for  the  task 
of  getting  into  shape  for  shipment  and  then  shipping  the 
many  hundreds  of  specimens — indeed,  all  told  there  were 
thousands  of  specimens — was  of  herculean  proportions. 
Governor  Jackson — a  devoted  ornithologist  and  probably 
the  best  living  authority  on  East  African  birds,  taking 
into  account  the  stand-points  of  both  the  closet  naturalist 
and  the  field  naturalist — spent  hours  with  Mearns,  helping 
him  to  identify  and  arrange  the  species. 

Nairobi  is  a  very  attractive  town,  and  most  interesting, 
with  its  large  native  quarter  and  its  Indian  colony.  One 
of  the  streets  consists  of  little  except  Indian  shops  and 
bazaars.  Outside  the  business  portion,  the  town  is  spread 
over  much  territory,  the  houses  standing  isolated,  each  by 
itself,  and  each  usually  bowered  in  trees,  with  vines  shad- 
ing the  verandas,  and  pretty  flower-gardens  round  about. 
Not  only  do  I  firmly  believe  in  the  future  of  East  Africa 
for  settlement  as  a  white  man's  country,  but  I  feel  that  it 
is  an  ideal  playground  alike  for  sportsmen,  and  for  travel- 
lers who  wish  to  live  in  health  and  comfort,  and  yet  to  see 
what  is  beautiful  and  unusual. 


CHAPTER   VII 
TREKKING   THROUGH   THE    THIRST   TO   THE   SOTIK 

On  June  5th  we  started  south  from  Kijabe  to  trek 
through  the  thirst,  through  the  waterless  country  which  Kes 
across  the  way  to  the  Sotik. 

The  preceding  Sunday,  at  Nairobi,  I  had  visited  the 
excellent  French  Catholic  Mission,  had  been  most  cour- 
teously received  by  the  fathers,  had  gone  over  their  planta- 
tions and  the  school  in  which  they  taught  the  children  of 
the  settlers  (much  to  my  surprise,  among  them  were  three 
Parsee  children,  who  were  evidently  put  on  a  totally  differ- 
ent plane  from  the  other  Indians,  even  the  Goanese),  and 
had  been  keenly  interested  in  their  account  of  their  work 
and  of  the  obstacles  with  which  they  met. 

At  Kijabe  I  spent  several  exceedingly  interesting  hours 
at  the  American  Industrial  Mission.  Its  head,  Mr.  Hurl- 
burt,  had  called  on  me  in  Washington  at  the  White  House, 
in  the  preceding  October,  and  I  had  then  made  up  my 
mind  that  if  the  chance  occurred  I  must  certainly  visit  his 
mission.  It  is  an  interdenominational  mission,  and  is  car- 
ried on  in  a  spirit  which  combines  to  a  marked  degree  broad 
sanity  and  common-sense  with  disinterested  fervor.  Of 
course,  such  work,  under  the  conditions  which  necessarily 
obtain  in  East  Africa,  can  only  show  gradual  progress;  but 
I  am  sure  that  missionary  work  of  the  Kijabe  kind  will  be 
an  indispensable  factor  in  the  slow  uplifting  of  the  natives. 
There  is  full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  industrial  training 
is  a  foundation  stone  in  the  effort  to  raise  ethical  and  moral 
standards.  Industrial  teaching  must  go  hand  in  hand  with 
moral  teaching — and  in  both  the  mere  force  of  example  and 
the  influence  of  firm,  kindly  sympathy  and  understanding, 
count  immeasurably.     There  is  further  recognition  of  the 

174 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST 


175 


fact  that  in  such  a  country  the  missionary  should  either 
already  know  how  to,  or  else  at  once  learn  how  to,  take  the 
lead  himself  in  all  kinds  of  industrial  and  mechanical  work. 
Finally  the  effort  is  made  consistently  to  teach  the  native 
how  to  live  a  more  comfortable,  useful,  and  physically  and 
morally  cleanly  life,  not  under  white  conditions,  but  under 


Mr.  Roosevelt  after  luncheon  with  the  head  missionary 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


the  conditions  which  he  will  actually  have  to  face  when  he 
goes  back  to  his  people,  to  live  among  them,  and,  if  things 
go  well,  to  be  in  his  turn  a  conscious  or  unconscious  mission- 
ary for  good. 

At  lunch,  in  addition  to  the  missionaries  and  their  wives 
and  children,  there  were  half  a  dozen  of  the  neighboring 
settlers,  with  their  families.  It  is  always  a  good  thing  to  see 
the  missionary  and  the  settler  working  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
Many  parts  of  East  Africa  can,  and  I  believe  will,  be  made 
into  a  white  man's  country;  and  the  process  will  be  helped. 


1  TO- 


AFRICAN   GAMI!  TRAILS 


The  safari 
From  a  photograph 

not  hindered,  by  treating  the  black  man  well.  At  Kijabe, 
nearly  under  the  equator,  the  beautiful  scenery  was  almost 
northern  in  type;  at  night  we  needed  blazing  camp-fires 
and  the  days  were  as  cool  as  September  on  Long  Island  or 
by  the  southern  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes.     It  is  a  very 

healthy  region;  the  chil- 
dren of  the  missionaries 
and  settlers,  of  all  ages, 
were  bright  and  strong; 
those  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hurlburt  had  not  been 
out  of  the  country  for 
eight  years,  and  showed 
no  ill  effects  whatever; 
on  the  contrary,  I  quite 
believed  Mrs.  Hurlburt 
when  she  said  that  she 
regarded  the  fertile 
wooded  hills  of  Kijabe, 
with  their  forests  and 
clear  brooks,  as  forming 
a  true  health  resort. 
The  northern  look  of 

Ulyate  and  eland  calf  brousrht  in  by  Masai 

From  a  Photograph  ly  Kcrmit  Roosevelt  thc  plaCC   WaS    CnhaUCed 


TREKKINC;   THROUGH  THE   THIRST 


177 


on  the  march 

by  Edjnund  Heller 

by  the  fact  that  the  forests  contained  junipers;  but  they 
also  contained  monkeys,  a  small  green  monkey,  and  the  big 
guerza,  with  its  long  silky  hair  and  bold  black-and-white 
coloring.  Kermit,  Heller,  and  Loring  shot  several.  There 
were  rhinoceros  and  buffalo  in  the  neighborhood.  A 
few  days  previously  some  buffalo  had 
charged,  unprovoked,  a  couple  of  the 
native  boys  of  the  mission,  who  had 
escaped  only  by  their  agility  in  tree- 
climbing.  On  one  of  his  trips  to  an 
outlying  mission  station,  Mr.  Hurlburt 
had  himself  narrowly  escaped  a  seri- 
ous accident.  Quite  wantonly,  a  cow 
rhino,  with  a  calf,  charged  the  safari 
almost  before  they  knew  of  its  pres- 
ence. It  attacked  Hurlburt's  mule, 
which  fortunately  he  was  not  riding, 
and  tossed  and  killed  it;  it  passed 
through  the  line,  and  then  turned  and 
again  charged  it,  this  time  attacking 
one  of  the  porters.  The  porter  dodged 
behind  a  tree,  and  the  rhino  hit  the 
tree,  knocked  off  a  huge  flake  of  bark 
and  wood,  and  galloped  away. 


An  askari  on  duty 

From  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Iden 
LorzH£- 


i2 


178  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

The  trek  across  "the  thirst,"  as  any  waterless  country 
is  apt  to  be  called  by  an  Africander,  is  about  sixty  miles, 
by  the  road.  On  our  horses  we  could  have  ridden  it  in  a 
night;  but  on  a  serious  trip  of  any  kind  loads  must  be 
carried,  and  laden  porters  cannot  go  fast,  and  must  rest  at 
intervals.  We  had  rather  more  than  our  porters  could 
carry,  and  needed  additional  transportation  for  the  water 
for  the  safari;  and  we  had  hired  four  ox  wagons.  They 
were  under  the  lead  of  a  fine  young  colonial  Englishman 
named  Ulyate,  whose  great-grandfather  had  come  to  South 
Africa  in  1820,  as  part  of  the  most  important  English  emi- 
gration that  ever  went  thither.  His  father  and  sisters  had 
lunched  with  us  at  the  missionaries'  the  day  before;  his  wife's 
baby  was  too  young  for  her  to  come.  It  was  the  best  kind 
of  pioneer  family;  all  the  members,  with  some  of  their  fel- 
low-colonials, had  spent  much  of  the  preceding  three  years 
in  adventurous  exploration  of  the  country  in  their  ox  wagons, 
the  wives  and  daughters  as  valiant  as  the  men;  one  of  the 
two  daughters  I  met  had  driven  one  of  the  ox  wagons  on 
the  hardest  and  most  dangerous  trip  they  made,  while  her 
younger  sister  led  the  oxen.  It  was  on  this  trip  that  they 
had  pioneered  the  way  across  the  waterless  route  I  was  to 
take.  For  those  who,  like  ourselves,  followed  the  path  they 
had  thus  blazed,  there  was  no  danger  to  the  men,  and 
merely  discomfort  to  the  oxen;  but  the  first  trip  was  a  real 
feat,  for  no  one  could  tell  what  lay  ahead,  or  what  exact 
route  would  be  practicable.  The  family  had  now  settled 
on  a  big  farm,  but  also  carried  on  the  business  of  *' trans- 
port riding,"  as  freighting  with  wagons  is  called  in  Africa; 
and  they  did  it  admirably. 

With  Ulyate  were  three  other  white  wagon-drivers,  all 
colonials ;  two  of  them  English,  the  third  Dutch,  or  Boer. 
There  was  also  a  Cape  boy,  a  Kaffir  wagon-driver;  utterly 
different  from  any  of  the  East  African  natives,  and  dressed 
in  ordinary  clothes.  In  addition  there  were  various 
natives — primitive  savages  in  dress  and  habit,  but  coming 
from  the  cattle-owning  tribes.     Each  ox-team  was  guided 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST  179 

by  one  of  these  savages,  who  led  the  first  yoke  by  a 
leathern  thong,  while  the  wagon-driver,  with  his  long  whip, 
stalked  to  and  fro  beside  the  line  of  oxen,  or  rode  in  the 
wagon.  The  huge  wagons,  with  their  white  tops  or  "sails," 
were  larger  than  those  our  own  settlers  and  freighters  used. 
Except  one  small  one,  to  which  there  were  but  eight  oxen, 
each  was  drawn  by  a  span  of  seven  or  eight  yoke;  they 
were  all  native  humped  cattle. 

We  had  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  porters,  in  addition 
to  the  askaris,  tent  boys,  gun-bearers,  and  saises.  The 
management  of  such  a  safari  is  a  work  of  difficulty;  but 
no  better  man  for  the  purpose  than  Cuninghame  could  be 
found  anywhere,  and  he  had  chosen  his  headmen  well. 
In  the  thirst,  the  march  goes  on  by  day  and  night.  The 
longest  halt  is  made  in  the  day,  for  men  and  animals  both 
travel  better  at  night  than  under  the  blazing  noon.  We  were 
fortunate  in  that  it  was  just  after  the  full  of  the  moon,  so 
that  our  night  treks  were  made  in  good  light.  Of  course, 
on  such  a  march  the  porters  must  be  spared  as  much  as 
possible;  camp  is  not  pitched,  and  each  white  man  uses  for 
the  trip  only  what  he  wears,  or  carries  on  his  horse — and 
the  horse  also  must  be  loaded  as  lightly  as  possible.  I  took 
nothing  but  my  army  overcoat,  rifle  and  cartridges,  and  three 
canteens  of  water.     Kermit  did  the  same. 

The  wagons  broke  camp  about  ten,  to  trek  to  the  water, 
a  mile  and  a  half  off,  where  the  oxen  would  be  outspanned 
to  take  the  last  drink  for  three  days;  stock  will  not  drink 
early  in  the  morning  nearly  as  freely  as  if  the  march  is  be- 
gun later.  We,  riding  our  horses,  followed  by  the  long 
line  of  burdened  porters,  left  at  half-past  twelve,  and  in  a 
couple  of  hours  overtook  the  wagons.  The  porters  were 
in  high  spirits.  In  the  morning,  before  the  start,  they 
twice  held  regular  dances,  the  chief  musician  being  one 
of  their  own  number  who  carried  an  extraordinary  kind 
of  native  harp;  and  after  their  loads  were  allotted  they 
marched  out  of  camp  singing  and  blowing  their  horns  and 
whistles.     Three  askaris  brought  up  the  rear  to  look  after 


180 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


The  ox  wagons  trekking  through  the  scrub 
From  a  photograph  by  R.  J.  Cuiimghame 


laggards,  and  see  that  no  weak  or  sick  man  fell  out  with- 
out our  knowing  or  being  able  to  give  him  help. 

The  trail  led  first  through  open  brush,  or  low,  dry  forest, 
and  then  out  on  the  vast  plains,  where  the  withered  grass 
was  dotted  here  and  there  with  low,  scantily  leaved  thorn- 
trees,  from  three  to  eight  feet  high.  Hour  after  hour  we 
drew  slowly  ahead  under  the  shimmering  sunlight.  The 
horsemen  walked   first,   with   the   gun-bearers,   saises,   and 

usually  a  few  very  energetic 
and  powerful  porters;  then 
came  the  safari  in  single 
file;  and  then  the  lumber- 
ing white-topped  wagons, 
the  patient  oxen  walking 
easily,  each  team  led  by  a 
half-naked  savage  with 
frizzed  hair  and  a  spear  or 
throwing-stick  in  his  hand, 
while  at  intervals  the  long 

The  porter-harper  and  his  native  harp         whipS  of  the  drivCrS  Crackcd 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Aldct  Loring  Kkc  riflcS.        ThC   duSt   rOSC    \X\. 


TREKKING   THROUGH  THE  THIRST  181 

clouds  from  the  dry  earth,  and  soon  covered  all  of  us;  in 
the  distance  herds  of  zebra  and  hartebeest  gazed  at  us 
as  we  passed,  and  we  saw  the  old  spoor  of  rhino,  beasts 
we  hoped  to  avoid,  as  they  often  charge  such  a  caravan. 

Slowly  the  shadows  lengthened;  the  light  waned,  the 
glare  of  the  white,  dusty  plain  was  softened,  and  the  bold 
outlines  of  the  distant  mountains  grew  dim.  Just  before 
nightfall  we  halted  on  the  further  side  of  a  dry  watercourse. 
The  safari  came  up  singing  and  whistling,  and  the  men 
put  down  their  loads,  lit  fires,  and  with  chatter  and  laugh- 
ter prepared  their  food.  The  crossing  was  not  good,  the 
sides  of  the  watercourse  being  steep;  and  each  wagon  was 
brought  through  by  a  double  span,  the  whips  cracking 
lustily  as  an  accompaniment  to  the  shouts  of  the  drivers,  as 
the  thirty  oxen  threw  their  weight  into  the  yokes  by  which 
they  were  attached  to  the  long  trek  tow.  The  horses  were 
fed.  We  had  tea,  with  bread  and  cold  meat — and  a  most 
delicious  meal  it  was — and  then  lay  dozing  or  talking  be- 
side the  bush-fires.  At  half-past  eight,  the  moon  having 
risen,  we  were  off  again.  The  safari  was  still  in  high  spirits, 
and  started  with  the  usual  chanting  and  drumming. 

We  pushed  steadily  onward  across  the  plain,  the  dust 
rising  in  clouds  under  the  spectral  moonlight.  Sometimes 
we  rode,  sometimes  we  walked  to  ease  our  horses.  The 
Southern  Cross  was  directly  ahead,  not  far  above  the  hori- 
zon. Higher  and  higher  rose  the  moon,  and  brighter  grew 
the  flood  of  her  light.  At  intervals  the  barking  call  of  zebras 
was  heard  on  either  hand.  It  was  after  midnight  when 
we  again  halted.  The  porters  were  tired,  and  did  not  sing 
as  they  came  up;  the  air  was  cool,  almost  nipping,  and 
they  at  once  huddled  down  in  their  blankets,  some  of  them 
building  fires.  We,  the  white  men,  after  seeing  our  horses 
staked  out,  each  lay  down  in  his  overcoat  or  jacket  and 
slicker,  with  his  head  on  his  saddle,  and  his  rifle  beside 
him,  and  had  a  little  over  two  hours'  sleep.  At  three  we 
were  off  again,  the  shivering  porters  making  no  sound  as 
they  started;    but  once  under  way  the  more  irrepressible 


182  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

spirits  speedily  began  a  kind  of  intermittent  chant,  and 
most  of  the  rest  by  degrees  joined  in  the  occasional  grunt 
or  hum  that  served  as  chorus. 

For  four  hours  we  travelled  steadily,  first  through  the 
moonlight,  and  then  through  the  reddening  dawn.  Jackals 
shrieked,  and  the  plains  plover  wailed  and  scolded  as  they 
circled  round  us.  When  the  sun  was  well  up,  we  halted; 
the  desolate  flats  stretched  far  and  wide  on  every  side  and 
rose  into  lofty  hills  ahead  of  us.  The  porters  received  their 
water  and  food,  and  lay  down  to  sleep,  some  directly  in  the 
open,  others  rigging  little  sun  shelters  under  the  scattering 
thorn-bushes.  The  horses  were  fed,  were  given  half  a 
pail  of  water  apiece,  and  were  turned  loose  to  graze  with 
the  oxen;  this  was  the  last  time  the  oxen  would  feed  freely, 
unless  there  was  rain;  and  this  was  to  be  our  longest  halt. 
We  had  an  excellent  breakfast,  like  our  supper  the  night 
before,  and  then  slept  as  well  as  we  could. 

Noon  came,  and  soon  afterward  we  again  started.  The 
country  grew  hilly,  and  brushy.  It  was  too  dry  for  much 
game,  but  we  saw  a  small  herd  of  giraffe,  which  are  in- 
dependent of  water.  Now  riding  our  horses,  now  leading 
them,  we  travelled  until  nearly  sunset,  when  we  halted  at 
the  foot  of  a  steep  divide,  beyond  which  our  course  lay 
across  slopes  that  gradually  fell  to  the  stream  for  which 
we  were  heading.  Here  the  porters  had  all  the  food  and 
water  they  wished,  and  so  did  the  horses;  and,  each  with 
a  double  span  of  oxen,  the  wagons  were  driven  up  the 
slope,  the  weary  cattle  straining  hard  in  the  yokes. 

Black  clouds  had  risen  and  thickened  in  the  west, 
boding  rain.  Three-fourths  of  our  journey  was  over;  and 
it  was  safe  to  start  the  safari  and  then  leave  it  to  come  on 
by  itself,  while  the  ox  wagons  followed  later.  At  nine,  be- 
fore the  moon  struggled  above  the  hill-crests  to  our  left,  we 
were  off.  Soon  we  passed  the  wagons,  drawn  up  abreast, 
a  lantern  high  on  a  pole,  while  the  tired  oxen  lay  in  their 
yokes,  attached  to  the  trek  tow.  An  hour  afterward  we 
left  the  safari  behind,  and  rode  ahead,  with  only  our  saises 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THmST 


183 


and  gun-bearers.  Gusts  of  rain  blew  in  our  faces,  and  grad- 
ually settled  into  a  steady,  gentle  downpour.  Our  horses 
began  to  slip  in  the  greasy  soil;  we  knew  the  rain  would 
refresh  the  cattle,  but  would  make  the  going  harder. 

At  one  we  halted,  in  the  rain,  for  a  couple  of  hours'  rest. 
Just  before  this  we  heard  two  lions  roaring,  or  rather  grunt- 
ing, not  far  in  front  of  us;    they  were  after  prey.     Lions 


A  halt 
From  a  photograph  by  R.  J.  Cuninghame 


are  bold  on  rainy  nights,  and  we  did  not  wish  to  lose  any 
of  our  horses;  so  a  watch  was  organized,  and  we  kept  ready 
for  immediate  action,  but  the  lions  did  not  come.  The 
native  boys  built  fires,  and  lay  close  to  them,  relieving  one 
another,  and  us,  as  sentinels.  Kermit  and  I  had  our  army 
overcoats,  which  are  warm  and  practically  water-proof; 
the  others  had  coats  almost  as  good.  We  lay  down  in  the 
rain,  on  the  drenched  grass,  with  our  saddle-cloths  over 
our  feet,  and  our  heads  on  our  saddles,  and  slept  comfort- 
ably for  two  hours. 


184 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


At  three  we  mounted  and  were  off  again,  the  rain  still 
falling.  There  were  steep  ravines  to  cross,  slippery  from 
the  wet;  but  we  made  good  time,  and  soon  after  six  off- 
saddled  on  the  farther  side  of  a  steep  drift  or  ford  in  the 
little  Suavi  River.  It  is  a  rapid  stream  flowing  between 
high,  well-wooded  banks;  it  was  an  attractive  camp  site, 
and,  as  we  afterward  found,  the  nights  were  so  cool  as  to 

make  great  camp-fires 
welcome.  At  half-past 
ten  the  safari  appeared, 
in  excellent  spirits,  the 
flag  waving,  to  an  accom- 
paniment of  chanting  and 
horn-blowing;  and,  to 
their  loudly  expressed  sat- 
isfaction, the  porters  were 
told  that  they  should 
have  an  extra  day's  ra- 
tions, as  well  as  a  day's 
rest.  Camp  was  soon 
pitched;  and  all,  of  every 
rank,  slept  soundly  that 
night,  though  the  lions 
moaned  near  by.  The 
wagons  did  not  get  in 
until  ten  the  following 
morning.  By  that  time 
the  oxen  had  been  nearly  three  days  without  water,  so,  by 
dawn,  they  were  unyoked  and  driven  down  to  drink  before 
the  drift  was  attempted,  the  wagons  being  left  a  mile  or  two 
back.  The  approaches  to  the  drift  were  steep  and  difficult, 
and,  with  two  spans  to  each,  the  wagons  swayed  and  plunged, 
over  the  twisted  bowlder-choked  trails  down  into  the  river- 
bed, crossed  it,  and,  with  lurching  and  straining,  men  shout- 
ing and  whips  cracking,  drew  slowly  up  the  opposite  bank. 
After  a  day's  rest,  we  pushed  on,  in  two  days'  easy  travel- 
ling, to  the  Guaso  Nyero  of  the  south.     Our  camps  were 


Every  one  rested  under  the  fly-tent  at  noon  in 
the  trek  through  the  thirst 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerinit  Roosevelt 


TREKKING   THROUGH   THE  THHIST 


185 


pleasant,  by  running  streams  of  swift  water;  one  was  really 
beautiful,  in  a  grassy  bend  of  a  rapid  little  river,  by  huge 
African  yew-trees,  with  wooded  cliffs  in  front.  It  was 
cool,  rainy  weather,  with  overcast  skies  and  misty  morn- 
ings, so  that  it  seemed  strangely  unlike  the  tropics.  The 
country  was  alive  with  herds  of  Masai  cattle,  sheep,  and 


Watering  the  oxen.     Taking  their  last  drink  for  three  days 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerinzt  Roosevelt 


donkeys.  The  Masai,  herdsmen  by  profession  and  war- 
riors by  preference,  with  their  great  spears  and  ox-hide 
shields,  were  stalwart  savages,  and  showed  the  mixture 
of  types  common  to  this  part  of  Africa,  which  is  the  edge 
of  an  ethnic  whirlpool.  Some  of  them  were  of  seemingly 
pure  negro  type;  others  except  in  their  black  sk,in  had 
little  negro  about  them,  their  features  being  as  clear-cut 
as   those   of  ebony  Nilotic   Arabs.     They  were   dignified. 


186  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

but  friendly  and  civil,  shaking  hands  as  soon  as  they  came 
up  to  us. 

On  the  Guaso  Nyero  was  a  settler  from  South  Africa, 
with  his  family;  and  we  met  another  settler  travelling  with 
a  big  flock  of  sheep  which  he  had  bought  for  trading  pur- 
poses. The  latter,  while  journeying  over  our  route  with 
cattle,  a  month  before,  had  been  attacked  by  lions  one  night. 
They  seized  his  cook  as  he  lay  by  the  fire,  but  fortunately 
grabbed  his  red  blanket,  which  they  carried  off,  and  the 
terrified  man  escaped;  and  they  killed  a  cow  and  a  calf. 
Ulyate's  brother-in-law,  Smith,  had  been  rendered  a  hope- 
less cripple  for  life,  six  months  previously,  by  a  lioness  he 
had  wounded.  Another  settler  while  at  one  of  our  camping- 
places  lost  two  of  his  horses,  which  were  killed  although 
within  a  boma.  One  night  lions  came  within  threatening 
neighborhood  of  our  ox  wagons;  and  we  often  heard  them 
moaning  in  the  early  part  of  the  night,  roaring  when  full 
fed  toward  morning;   but  we  were  not  molested. 

The  safari  was  in  high  feather,  for  the  days  were  cool, 
the  work  easy,  and  we  shot  enough  game  to  give  them 
meat.  When  we  broke  camp  after  breakfast,  the  porters 
would  all  stand  ranged  by  their  loads;  then  Tarlton  would 
whistle,  and  a  chorus  of  whistles,  horns,  and  tomtoms  would 
answer,  as  each  porter  lifted  and  adjusted  his  burden,  fell 
into  his  place,  and  then  joined  in  some  shrill  or  guttural 
chorus  as  the  long  line  swung  off  at  its  marching  pace. 
After  nightfall  the  camp-fires  blazed  in  the  cool  air,  and 
as  we  stood  or  sat  around  them  each  man  had  tales  to 
tell:  Cuninghame  and  Tarlton  of  elephant  hunting  in  the 
Congo,  and  of  perilous  adventures  hunting  lion  and  buffalo; 
Mearns  of  long  hikes  and  fierce  fighting  in  the  steaming 
Philippine  forests;  Loring  and  Heller  of  hunting  and  col- 
lecting in  Alaska,  in  the  Rockies,  and  among  the  deserts  of 
the  Mexican  border;  and  always  our  talk  came  back  to 
strange  experiences  with  birds  and  beasts,  both  great  and 
small,  and  to  the  ways  of  the  great  game.  The  three 
naturalists  revelled  in  the  teeming  bird  life,  with  its  wealth 


Colobus 
monkey 


188 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


of  beauty  and  color — nor  was  the  beauty  only  of  color 
and  shape,  for  at  dawn  the  bird  songs  made  real  music. 
The  naturalists  trapped  many  small  mammals:  big-eared 
mice  looking  like  our  white-footed  mice,  mice  with  spiny 
fur,  mice  that  lived  in  trees,  rats  striped  like  our  chip- 
munks, rats  that  jumped  like  jerboas,  big  cane-rats,  dor- 
mice, and  tiny  shrews.  Meercats,  things  akin  to  a  small 
mongoose,  lived  out  in  the  open  plains,  burrowing  in  com- 


I 


\  wounded  wildebeest 
From  a  photograph  by  Kcrmit  Roosevelt 


panics  like  prairie  dogs,  very  spry  and  active,  and  looking 
like  picket  pins  when  they  stood  up  on  end  to  survey  us. 
I  killed  a  nine-foot  python  which  had  swallowed  a  rab- 
bit. Game  was  not  plentiful,  bat  we  killed  enough  for 
the  table.  I  shot  a  wildebeest  bull  one  day,  having  edged 
up  to  it  on  foot,  after  missing  it  standing;  I  broke  if  down 
with  a  bullet  through  the  hips  as  it  galloped  across  my  front 
at  three  hundred  yards.  Kermit  killed  our  first  topi,  a  bull; 
a  beautiful  animal,  the  size  of  a  hartebeest,  its  glossy  coat 
with  a  satin  sheen,  varying  from  brown  to  silver  and  purple. 
By  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  halted  for  several  days;  and 
we  arranged  to  leave  Mearns  and  Loring  in  a  permanent 
camp,  so  that  they  might  seriously  study  and  collect  the 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST 


189 


birds  and  small  mammals  while  the  rest  of  us  pushed 
wherever  we  wished  after  the  big  game.  The  tents  were 
pitched,  and  the  ox  wagons  drawn  up  on  the  southern  side 
of  the  muddy  river,  by  the  edge  of  a  wide  plain,  on  which 
we  could  see  the  game  grazing  as  we  walked  around  camp. 
The  alluvial  flats  bordering  the  river,  and  some  of  the 
higher  plains,  were  covered  with 
an  open  forest  growth,  the  most 
common  tree  looking  exactly  like 
a  giant  sage-brush,  thirty  feet 
high;  and  there  were  tall  aloes 
and  cactus  and  flat-topped  mi- 
mosa. We  found  a  wee  hedge- 
hog, with  much  white  about  it. 
He  would  cuddle  up  in  my  hand 
snuffing  busily  with  his  funny 
little  nose.  We  did  not  have  the 
heart  to  turn  the  tame,  friendly 
little  fellow  over  to  the  natural- 
ists, and  so  we  let  him  go.  Birds 
abounded.  One  kind  of  cuckoo 
called  like  a  whippoorwill  in  the 
early  morning  and  late  evening, 

and  after  nightfall.  Among  our  friendly  visitors  were  the 
pretty,  rather  strikingly  colored  little  chats — Livingstone's 
wheatear — which  showed  real  curiosity  in  coming  into 
camp.  They  were  nesting  in  burrows  on  the  open  plains 
round  about.  Mearns  got  a  white  egg  and  a  nest  at  the 
end  of  a  little  burrow  two  feet  long;  wounded,  the  birds 
ran  into  holes  or  burrows.  They  sang  attractively  on  the 
wing,  often  at  night.  The  plover-like  coursers,  very  pretty 
birds,  continually  circled  round  us  with  querulous  clamor. 
Gorgeously  colored,  diminutive  sunbirds,  of  many  different 
kinds,  were  abundant ;  they  had  an  especial  fondness  for 
the  gaudy  flowers  of  the  tall  mint  which  grew  close  to  the 
river.  We  got  a  small  cobra,  less  than  eighteen  inches  long ; 
it  had  swallowed  another  snake  almost  as  big  as  itself;   un- 


A  Colobus  monkey 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Idea  Luring 


190  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

fortunately  the  head  of  the  swallowed  snake  was  digested, 
but  the  body  looked  like  that  of  a  young  puff  adder. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp  I  rode  off  for  a  hunt, 
accompanied  by  my  two  gun-bearers  and  with  a  dozen 
porters  following,  to  handle  whatever  I  killed.  One  of 
my  original  gun-bearers,  Mahomet,  though  a  good  man  in 
the  field,  had  proved  in  other  respects  so  unsatisfactory 
that  he  had  been  replaced  by  another,  a  Wakamba  heathen 
named  Gouvimali — I  could  never  remember  his  name  un- 
til, as  a  mnemonic  aid,  Kermit  suggested  that  I  think  of 
Gouverneur  Morris,  the  old  Federalist  statesman,  whose  life 
I  had  once  studied.     He  was  a  capital  man  for  the  work. 

Half  a  mile  from  camp  I  saw  a  buck  tommy  with  a  good 
head,  and  as  we  needed  his  delicious  venison  for  our  own 
table,  I  dismounted  and  after  a  little  care  killed  him  as  he 
faced  me  at  two  hundred  and  ten  yards.  Sending  him 
back  by  one  of  the  porters,  I  rode  on  toward  two  topi  we 
saw  far  in  front.  But  there  were  zebra,  hartebeest,  and 
wildebeest  in  between,  all  of  which  ran;  and  the  topi  proved 
wary.  I  was  still  walking  after  them  when  we  made  out 
two  eland  bulls  ahead  and  to  our  left.  The  ground  was  too 
open  to  admit  of  the  possibility  of  a  stalk;  but  leaving  my 
horse  and  the  porters  to  follow  slowly,  the  gun-bearers 
and  I  walked  quartering  toward  them.  They  hesitated 
about  going,  and  when  I  had  come  as  close  as  I  dared,  I 
motioned  to  the  two  gun-bearers  to  continue  walking,  and 
dropped  on  one  knee.  I  had  the  little  Springfield,  and  was 
anxious  to  test  the  new  sharp-pointed  military  bullet  on 
some  large  animal.  The  biggest  bull  was  half  facing  me, 
just  two  hundred  and  eighty  yards  off;  I  fired  a  little  bit 
high  and  a  trifle  to  the  left;  but  the  tiny  ball  broke  his 
back  and  the  splendid  beast,  heavy  as  a  prize  steer,  came 
plunging  and  struggling  to  the  ground.  The  other  bull 
started  to  run  off,  but  after  I  had  walked  a  hundred  yards 
forward,  he  actually  trotted  back  toward  his  companion; 
then  halted,  turned,  and  galloped  across  my  front  at  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  yards;    and  him  too  I 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST 


191 


A  wounded  tommy 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerviit  Roosevelt 


brought  down  with 
a  single  shot.  The 
Httle  full-jacketed, 
sharp-pointed  bullet 
made  a  terrific  rend- 
ing compared  with 
the  heavier,  ordina- 
ry-shaped bullet  of 
the  same  composi- 
tion. 

I  was  much 
pleased  with  my 
two  prizes,  for  the 
National  Museum 
particularly  desired 
a  good  group  of  eland.  They  were  splendid  animals,  like 
beautiful  heavy  cattle;  and  I  could  not  sufficiently  admire 
their  sleek,  handsome,  striped  coats,  their  shapely  heads, 
fine  horns,  and  massive  bodies.  The  big  bull,  an  old  one, 
looked  blue  at  a  distance;  he  was  very  heavy  and  his  dewlap 
hung  down  just  as  with  cattle.  His  companion,  although 
much  less  heavy,  was  a  full-grown  bull  in  his  prime,  with 
longer  horns;  for  the  big  one's  horns  had  begun  to  wear 
down  at  the  tips.  In  their  stomachs  were  grass  blades  and, 
rather  to  my  surprise,  aloe  leaves. 

We  had  two  canvas  cloths  with  us,  which  Heller  had 

instructed  me  to  put 
over  anything  I  shot, 
in  order  to  protect  it 
from  the  sun;  so, 
covering  both  bulls, 
I  left  a  porter  with 
them,  and  sent  in 
another  to  notify 
Heller — who    came 

out  with  an  ox  wag- 
Head  of  the  old  bull  eland  .  .         >* 

From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Helle?  ®^    ^^     Ormg     IH     tnC 


V.H  AFRICAN   GMIE  TRAILS 

skins  and  meat.  I  had  killed  these  two  eland  bulls,  as  well 
as  the  buck  gazelle  (bringing  down  each  with  a  single  bullet) 
within  three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  leaving  camp. 

I  wanted  a  topi,  and  continued  the  hunt.  The  coun- 
try swarmed  with  the  herds  and  flocks  of  the  Masai,  who 
own  a  wealth  of  live  stock.  Each  herd  of  cattle  and  don- 
keys or  flock  of  sheep  was  guarded  by  its  herdsmen;  bands 
of  stalwart,  picturesque  warriors,  with  their  huge  spears 
and  ox-hide  shields,  occasionally  strolled  by  us;  and  we 
passed  many  bomas,  the  kraals  where  the  stock  is  gathered 
at  night,  with  the  mud  huts  of  the  owners  ringing  them.  Yet 
there  was  much  game  in  the  country  also,  chiefly  zebra  and 
hartebeest;  the  latter,  according  to  their  custom,  contin- 
ually jumping  up  on  ant-hills  to  get  a  clearer  view  of  me, 
and  sometimes  standing  on  them  motionless  for  a  consider- 
able time,  as  sentries  to  scan  the  country  around. 

At  last  we  spied  a  herd  of  topi,  distinguishable  from 
the  hartebeest  at  a  very  long  distance  by  their  dark  coloring, 
the  purples  and  browns  giving  the  coat  a  heavy  shading 
which  when  far  off,  in  certain  lights,  looks  almost  black. 
Topi,  hartebeest,  and  wildebeest  belong  to  the  same  group, 
and  are  specialized,  and  their  peculiar  physical  and  men- 
tal traits  developed,  in  the  order  named.  The  wildebeest 
is  the  least  normal  and  most  grotesque  and  odd-looking  of 
the  three,  and  his  idiosyncrasies  of  temper  are  also  the 
most  marked.  The  hartebeest  comes  next,  with  his  very 
high  withers,  long  face,  and  queerly  shaped  horns;  while 
the  topi,  although  with  a  general  hartebeest  look,  has  the 
features  of  shape  and  horn  less  pronounced,  and  bears  a 
greater  resemblance  to  his  more  ordinary  kinsfolk.  In  the 
same  way,  though  it  will  now  and  then  buck  and  plunge 
when  it  begins  to  run  after  being  startled,  its  demeanor  is  less 
pronounced  in  this  respect.  The  topi's  power  of  leaping  is 
great;  I  have  seen  one  when  frightened  bound  clear  over  a 
companion,  and  immediately  afterward  over  a  high  ant-hill. 

The  herd  of  topi  we  saw  was  more  shy  than  the  neigh- 
boring zebra  and  hartebeest.     There  was  no  cover  and  I 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THHIST 


193 


Spent  an  hour  trying  to  walk  up  to  them  by  manoeuvring 
in  one  way  and  another.  They  did  not  run  clear  away, 
but  kept  standing  and  letting  me  approach  to  distances 
varying  from  four  hundred  and  fifty  to  six  hundred  yards; 
tempting  me  to  shoot,  while  nevertheless  I  could  not  esti- 
mate the  range  accurately,  and  was  not  certain  whether  I 
was  over  or  under 
shooting.  So  I 
fired  more  times 
than  I  care  to  men- 
tion before  I  finally 
got  my  topi— at 
just  five  hundred 
and  twenty  yards. 
It  was  a  handsome 
cow,  weighing  two 
hundred  and  sixty 
pounds;  for  topi  are 
somewhat  smaller 
than  kongoni.  The 
beauty  of  its  coat, 
in  texture  and  col- 
oring, struck  me 
afresh  as  I  looked 
at  the  sleek  creat- 
ure stretched  out 
on  the  grass.  Like 
the   eland,    it    was 

free  from   ticks;    for  the    hideous   pests    do    not    frequent 
this  part  of  the  country  in  any  great  numbers. 

I  reached  camp  early  in  the  afternoon,  and  sat  down 
at  the  mouth  of  my  tent  to  enjoy  myself.  It  was  on  such 
occasions  that  the  Pigskin  Library  proved  itself  indeed  a 
blessing.  In  addition  to  the  original  books  we  had  picked 
up  one  or  two  old  favorites  on  the  way:  Alice's  Adventures, 
for  instance,  and  Fitzgerald — I  say  Fitzgerald,  because 
reading  other  versions  of  Omar   Khayyam  always  leaves 

13 


Giant  Masai  warriors  and  an  average-sized  porter 
Fi-om  a  photograph  by  J.  A  Iden  Loring 


194  AFRICAN   GA^IE  TRAILS 

me  with  the  feeling  that  Fitzgerald  is  the  major  partner  in 
the  book  we  really  like.    Then  there  was  a  book  I  had 
not  read,   Dumas's   *'Louves    de   Machecoul."     This   was 
presented  to  me  at  Port  Said  by  M.  Jusserand,  the  brother 
of  an  old  and  valued  friend,   the   French  ambassador  at 
Washington — the  vice-president  of  the  "Tennis  Cabinet." 
We  had  been  speaking  of  Balzac,  and  I  mentioned  regret- 
fully that  I  did  not  at  heart  care  for  his  longer  novels  ex- 
cepting the  "Chou- 
ans";  and,  as  John 
Hay  once  told  me, 
in    the    eye    of    all 
true    Balzacians    to 
like  the  "Chouans" 
merely  aggravates 
^    . ,  ^    ^  ^^     . ,  the  offence    of   not 

1  opi  (shot  by  Kermit) 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  llKing      tlie       UOVClS 

which  they  deem 
really  great.  M.  Jusserand  thereupon  asked  me  if  I  knew 
Dumas's  Vendean  novel;  being  a  fairly  good  Dumas  man, 
I  was  rather  ashamed  to  admit  that  I  did  not;  whereupon 
he  sent  it  to  me,  and  I  enjoyed  it  to  the  full. 

The  next  day  was  Kermit's  red-letter  day.  We  were 
each  out  until  after  dark;  I  merely  got  some  of  the  ordinary 
game,  taking  the  skins  for  the  naturalists,  the  flesh  for  our 
following;  he  killed  two  cheetahs,  and  a  fine  maned  lion, 
finer  than  any  previously  killed.  There  were  three  chee- 
tahs together.  Kermit,  who  was  with  Tarlton,  galloped 
the  big  male,  and,  although  it  had  a  mile's  starts  ran  into  it 
in  three  miles,  and  shot  it  as  it  lay  under  a  bush.  He 
afterward  shot  another,  a  female,  who  was  lying  on  a 
stone  koppie.  Neither  made  any  attempt  to  charge;  the 
male  had  been  eating  a  tommy.  The  lion  was  with  a 
lioness,  which  wheeled  to  one  side  as  the  horsemen  gal- 
loped after  her  maned  mate.  He  turned  to  bay  after  a  run 
of  less  than  a  mile,  and  started  to  charge  from  a  distance 
of  two  hundred  yards;    but  Kermit's  first  bullets  mortally 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THHIST 


195 


wounded  him  and  crippled  him  so  that  he  could  not  come 
at  any  pace  and  was  easily  stopped  before  covering  half  the 
distance.  Although  nearly  a  foot  longer  than  the  biggest 
of  the  lions  I  had  already  killed,  he  was  so  gaunt — whereas 
they  were  very  fat — that  he  weighed  but  little  more,  only 
four  hundred  and  twelve  pounds. 

The  following  day  I  was  out  by  myself,  after  impalla 
and  Roberts'  gazelle;    and  the  day  after  I  went  out  with 


The  big  lion  shot  by  Kermit 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

Tarlton  to  try  for  lion.  We  were  away  from  camp  for 
over  fifteen  hours.  Each  was  followed  by  his  sais  and 
gun-bearers,  and  we  took  a  dozen  porters  also.  The  day 
may  be  worth  describing,  as  a  sample  of  the  days  when  we 
did  not  start  before  dawn  for  a  morning's  hunt. 

We  left  camp  at  seven,  steering  for  a  high,  rocky  hill, 
four  miles  off.  We  passed  zebra  and  hartebeest,  and  on  the 
hill  came  upon  Chanler's  reedbuck;  but  we  wanted  none  of 
these.  Continually,  Tarlton  stopped  to  examine  some  dis- 
tant object  with  his  glasses,  and  from  the  hill  we  scanned 


196 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


the  country  far  and  wide;  but  we  saw  nothing  we  desired 
and  continued  on  our  course.  The  day  was  windy  and 
cool,  and  the  sky  often  overcast.    Slowly  we  walked  across 


Tarlton,  and  cheetah  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 
From  a  jihotografh  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


the  stretches  of  brown  grassland,  sometimes  treeless,  some- 
times scantily  covered  with  an  open  growth  of  thorn-trees, 
each   branch   armed  with   long  spikes,  needle-sharp;   and 


TREKKING   THROUGH  THE  THIRST  197 

among  the  thorns  here  and  there  stood  the  huge  cactus-hkc 
euphorbias,  shaped  hke  candelabra,  groups  of  tall  aloes, 
and  gnarled  wild  olives  of  great  age,  with  hoary  trunks 
and  twisted  branches.  Now  and  then  there  would  be  a  dry 
watercourse,  with  flat-topped  acacias  bordering  it,  and 
perhaps  some  one  pool  of  thick  greenish  water.  There 
was  game  always  in  view,  and  about  noon  we  sighted  three 
rhinos,  a  bull,  a  cow,  and  a  big  calf,  nearly  a  mile  ahead  of 
us.  We  were  travelling  down  wind,  and  they  scented  us, 
but  did  not  charge,  making  off  in  a  semicircle  and  halting 
when  abreast  of  us.  We  examined  them  carefully  through 
the  glasses.  The  cow  was  bigger  than  the  bull,  and  had 
fair  horns,  but  nothing  extraordinary;  and  as  we  were 
twelve  miles  from  camp,  so  that  Heller  v/ould  have  had  to 
come  out  for  the  night  if  we  shot  her,  we  decided  to  leave 
her  alone.  Then  our  attention  was  attracted  by  seeing 
the  game  all  gazing  in  one  direction,  and  we  made  out  a 
hyena;  I  got  a  shot  at  it,  at  three  hundred  yards,  but  missed. 
Soon  afterward  we  saw  another  rhino,  but  on  approaching 
it  proved  to  be  about  two-thirds  grown,  with  a  stubby  horn. 
We  did  not  wish  to  shoot  it,  and  therefore  desired  to  avoid 
a  charge;  and  so  we  passed  three  or  four  hundred  yards  to 
leeward,  trusting  to  its  bad  eyesight.  Just  opposite  it, 
when  it  was  on  our  right,  we  saw  another  hyena  on  our  left, 
about  as  far  off  as  the  rhino.  I  decided  to  take  a  shot,  and 
run  the  chance  of  disturbing  the  rhino.  So  I  knelt  down 
and  aimed  with  the  little  Springfield,  keeping  the  Holland 
by  me  to  be  ready  for  events.  I  never  left  camp,  on  foot  or 
on  horseback,  for  any  distance,  no  matter  how  short,  with- 
out carrying  one  of  the  repeating  rifles;  and  when  on  a 
hunt  my  two  gun-bearers  carried,  one  the  other  magazine 
rifle,  and  one  the  double-barrelled  Holland. 

Tarlton,  whose  eye  for  distance  was  good,  told  me  the 
hyena  was  over  three  hundred  yards  off;  it  was  walking 
slowly  to  the  left.  I  put  up  the  three-hundred-yard  sight, 
and  drew  a  rather  coarse  bead;  and  down  went  the  hyena 
with  its  throat  cut;    the  little  sharp-pointed,  full-jacketed 


198  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

bullet  makes  a  slashing  wound.  The  distance  was  just 
three  hundred  and  fifty  long  paces.  As  soon  as  I  had 
pulled  trigger  I  wheeled  to  watch  the  rhino.  It  started 
round  at  the  shot  and  gazed  toward  us  with  its  ears  cocked 
forward,  but  made  no  movement  to  advance.  While  a 
couple  of  porters  were  dressing  the  hyena,  I  could  not 
help  laughing  at  finding  that  we  were  the  centre  of  a 
thoroughly  African   circle  of  deeply  interested  spectators. 


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A  wart-hog  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

We  were  in  the  middle  of  a  vast  plain,  covered  with  sun- 
scorched  grass  and  here  and  there  a  stunted  thorn;  in  the 
background  were  isolated  barren  hills,  and  the  mirage  wa- 
vered in  the  distance.  Vultures  wheeled  overhead.  The 
rhino,  less  than  half  a  mile  away,  stared  steadily  at  us. 
Wildebeest — their  heavy  forequarters  and  the  carriage  of 
their  heads  making  them  look  like  bison — and  hartebeest 
were  somewhat  nearer,  in  a  ring  all  round  us^  intent  upon 
our  proceedings.  Four  topi  became  so  much  interested  that 
they  approached  within  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  and 
stood  motionless.  A  buck  tommy  came  even  closer,  and  a 
zebra  trotted  by  at  about  the  same  distance,   uttering  its 


TREKKING   THROUGH  THE  THIRST  199 

queer  bark  or  neigh.  It  continued  its  course  past  the  rhino, 
and  started  a  new  train  of  ideas  in  the  latter's  muddled  rep- 
tihan  brain;  round  it  wheeled,  gazed  after  the  zebra,  and 
then  evidently  concluded  that  everything  was  normal,  for 
it  lay  down  to  sleep. 

On  we  went,  past  a  wildebeest  herd  lying  down;  at 
a  distance  they  looked  exactly  like  bison  as  they  used  to 
lie  out  on  the  prairie  in  the  old  days.  We  halted  for  an 
hour  and  a  half  to  rest  the  men  and  horses,  and  took  our 
lunch  under  a  thick-trunked  olive-tree  that  must  have  been 
a  couple  of  centuries  old.  Again  we  went  on,  ever  scanning 
through  the  glasses  every  distant  object  which  we  thought 
might  possibly  be  a  lion,  and  ever  being  disappointed.  A 
serval  cat  jumped  up  ahead  of  us  in  the  tall  grass,  but  I 
missed  it.  Then,  trotting  on  foot,  I  got  ahead  of  two  wart- 
hog  boars,  and  killed  the  biggest;  making  a  bad  initial 
miss  and  then  emptying  my  magazine  at  it  as  it  ran. 
We  sent  it  in  to  camp,  and  went  on,  following  a  donga, 
or  small  watercourse,  fringed  with  big  acacias.  The  after- 
noon was  wearing  away,  and  it  was  time  for  lions  to  be 
abroad. 

The  sun  was  near  the  horizon  when  Tarlton  thought  he 
saw  something  tawny  in  the  watercourse  ahead  of  us,  be- 
hind a  grassy  ant-hill,  toward  which  we  walked  after  dis- 
mounting. Some  buck  were  grazing  peacefully  beyond  it, 
and  for  a  moment  we  supposed  that  this  was  what  he  had 
seen.  But  as  we  stood,  one  of  the  porters  behind  called 
out  *'Simba";  and  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  big  lioness 
galloping  down  beside  the  trees,  just  beyond  the  donga; 
she  was  out  of  sight  in  an  instant.  Mounting  our  horses, 
we  crossed  the  donga;  she  was  not  to  be  seen,  and  we 
loped  at  a  smart  pace  parallel  with  the  line  of  trees,  hoping 
to  see  her  in  the  open.  But,  as  it  turned  out,  as  soon  as 
she  saw  us  pass,  she  crouched  in  the  bed  of  the  donga;  we 
had  gone  by  her  a  quarter  of  a  mile  when  a  shout  from  one 
of  our  followers  announced  that  he  had  seen  her,  and  back 
we  galloped,  threw  ourselves  from  our  horses,  and  walked 


«00  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

toward  where  the  man  was  pointing.  Tarlton  took  his  big 
double-barrel  and  advised  me  to  take  mine,  as  the  sun 
had  just  set  and  it  was  hkely  to  be  close  work;  but  I  shook 
my  head,  for  the  Winchester  .405  is,  at  least  for  me  per- 
sonally, the  ''medicine  gun"  for  lions.  In  another  mo- 
ment up  she  jumped,  and  galloped  slowly  down  the  other 
side  of  the  donga,  switching  her  tail  and  growling;  I  scram- 
bled across  the  donga,  and  just  before  she  went  round  a 
clump  of  trees,  eighty  yards  off,  I  fired.     The  bullet  hit 

her  fair,    and  going  forward 
injused  her  spine.     Over  she 
rolled,  growling  savagely,  and 
dragged  herself  into  the  water- 
course; and  running  forward 
I    finished 
her  with  two 
bullets  be- 
hind    the 
shou  Ider. 
She    was    a 

big,  fat  lion- 
Extreme  form  of  Roberts'  gazelle  „         VPrv  nlH 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller  .       - 

With  two 
cubs  inside  her;  her  lower  canines  were  much  worn  and 
injured.  She  was  very  heavy,  and  probably  weighed  con- 
siderably over  three  hundred  pounds. 

The  light  was  growing  dim,  and  camp  was  eight  or 
ten  miles  away.  The  porters — they  are  always  much  ex- 
cited over  the  death  of  a  lion — wished  to  carry  the  body 
whole  to  camp,  and  I  let  them  try.  While  they  were  lashing 
it  to  a  pole  another  lion  began  to  moan  hungrily  half  a 
mile  away.  Then  we  started;  there  was  no  moon,  but  the 
night  was  clear  and  we  could  guide  ourselves  by  the  stars. 
The  porters  staggered  under  their  heavy  load,  and  we 
made  slow  progress;  most  of  the  time  Tarlton  and  I  walked, 
with  our  double-barrels  in  our  hands,  for  it  was  a  dan- 
gerous neighborhood.    Again  and  again  we  heard  lions,  and 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST 


201 


Masai  with  stretcliinLr-stone 


Froni  a  photogrnph  by  J.  A  Men 
Loring 


twice  one  accompanied   us   for  some 

distance,  grunting  occasionally,  while 

we  kept  the  men  closed.      Once  the 

porters  were  thrown  into  a  panic  by  a 

succession  of  steam-engine-like  snorts 

on  our  left,  which  announced  the  im- 
mediate proximity  of  a  rhino.    They 

halted    in    a    huddle    while   Tarlton 

and   I  ran  forward  and  crouched  to 

try  to  catch  the  great  beast's   loom 

against  the  sky-line;  but  it  moved  off. 

Four  miles  from  camp  was  a  Masai 

kraal,  and  we  went  toward  this  when 

we  caught  the  gleam  of  the  fires;  for 

the   porters  were   getting   exhausted. 

The  kraal  was  in  shape  a  big  oval,  with  a  thick  wall  of 

thorn-bushes,  eight  feet  high,  the  low  huts  standing  just 

within  this  wall^  while  the  cattle  and  sheep  were  crowded  into 

small  bomas  in  the  centre.  The 
fires  gleamed  here  and  there 
within,  and  as  we  approached 
we  heard  the  talking  and  laugh- 
ing of  men  and  women,  and 
the  lowing  and  bleating  of  th'^ 
pent-up  herds  and  flocks.  We 
hailed  loudly,  explaining  our 
needs.  At  first  they  were  very 
suspicious.  They  told  us  we 
could  not  bring  the  lion  within, 
because  it  would  frighten  the 
cattle,  but  after  some  parley 
consented  to  our  building  a  fire 

\'i'  ^^HyiHPHir  outside,  and  skinning  the  ani- 

mal.   They  passed  two  brands 
over  the  thorn  fence,  and  our 
^  .,  ^  men  speedily  kindled  a  blaze, 

A  Masai  woman  and  toto  ^  -'      ,  .  , 

Frojit  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  anO.    ClreW    tJie    llOUCSS    DeSlQe    it. 


202  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

By  this  time  the  Masai  were  reassured,  and  a  score  of 
their  warriors,  followed  soon  by  half  a  dozen  women, 
came  out  through  a  small  opening  in  the  fence,  and 
crowded  close  around  the  fire,  with  boisterous,  noisy  good- 
humor.  They  showed  a  tendency  to  chaff  our  porters. 
One,  the  humorist  of  the  crowd,  excited  much  merriment 
by  describing,  with  pantomimic  accompaniment  of  gest- 
ures, how  when  the  white  man  shot  a  lion  it  might  bite 
a  Swahili,  who  thereupon  would  call  for  his  mother.  But 
they  were  entirely  friendly,  and  offered  me  calabashes  of 
milk.  The  men  were  tall,  finely  shaped  savages,  their 
hair  plastered  with  red  mud,  and  drawn  out  into  longish 
ringlets;  they  were  naked  except  for  a  blanket  worn,  not 
round  the  loins^  but  over  the  shoulders;  their  ears  were  slit, 
and  from  them  hung  bone  and  wooden  ornaments;  they 
wore  metal  bracelets  and  anklets,  and  chains  which  passed 
around  their  necks,  or  else  over  one  side  of  the  neck  and 
under  the  opposite  arm.  The  women  had  pleasant  faces, 
and  were  laden  with  metal  ornaments — chiefly  wire  ank- 
lets, bracelets,  and  necklaces — of  many  pounds  weight. 
The  features  of  the  men  were  bold  and  clear-cut,  and  their 
bearing  warlike  and  self-reliant;  as  the  flame  of  the  fire 
glanced  over  them,  and  brought  their  faces  and  bronze 
figures  into  lurid  relief  against  the  darkness,  the  likeness 
was  striking,  not  to  the  West  Coast  negroes,  but  to  the  en- 
gravings on  the  tombs,  temples,  and  palaces  of  ancient 
Egypt;  they  might  have  been  soldiers  in  the  armies  of 
Thothmes  or  Rameses.  They  stood  resting  on  their  long 
staffs,  and  looked  at  me  as  I  leaned  on  my  rifle;  and  they 
laughed  and  jested  with  their  women,  who  felt  the  lion's 
teeth  and  claws  and  laughed  back  at  the  men;  our  gun- 
bearers  worked  at  the  skinning,  and  answered  the  jests  of 
their  warlike  friends  with  the  freedom  of  men  who  them- 
selves followed  a  dangerous  trade;  the  two  horses  stood 
quiet  just  outside  the  circle;  and  over  all  the  firelight 
played  and  leaped. 

It  was  after  ten  when  we  reached  camp,  and  I  enjoyed 


TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST  203 

a  hot  bath  and  a  shave  before  sitting  down  to  a  supper  of 
eland  venison  and  broiled  spurfowl;  and  surely  no  supper 
ever  tasted  more  delicious. 

Next  day  we  broke  camp.  My  bag  for  the  five  days 
illustrates  ordinary  African  shooting  in  this  part  of  the  con- 
tinent. Of  course  I  could  have  killed  many  other  things ; 
but  I  shot  nothing  that  was  not  absolutely  needed,  both  for 
scientific  purposes  and  for  food;  the  skin  of  every  animal  I 
shot  was  preserved  for  the  National  Museum.  The  bag  in- 
cluded fourteen  animals,  often  different  species:  one  lioness, 
one  hyena,  One  wart-hog  boar,  two  zebra,  two  eland,  one 
wildebeest,  two  topi,  two  impalla,  one  Roberts'  gazelle,  one 
Thomson's  gazelle.  Except  the  lioness  and  one  impalla 
(both  of  which  I  shot  running),  all  were  shot  at  rather 
long  ranges;  seven  were  shot  standing,  two  walking,  five 
running.  The  average  distance  at  which  they  were  shot 
was  a  little  over  two  hundred  and  twenty  yards.  I  used 
sixty-five  cartridges,  an  amount  which  will  seem  excessive 
chiefly  to  those  who  are  not  accustomed  actually  to  count 
the  cartridges  they  expend,  to  measure  the  distances  at 
which  they  fire,  and  to  estimate  for  themselves  the  range, 
on  animals  in  the  field  when  they  are  standing  or  running 
a  good  way  off.  Only  one  wounded  animal  got  away;  and 
eight  of  the  animals  I  shot  had  to  be  finished  with  one  bullet 
— two  in  the  case  of  the  lioness — as  they  lay  on  the  ground. 
Many  of  the  cartridges  expended  really  represented  range- 
finding. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
HUNTING   IN   THE   SOTIK 

Our  next  camp  was  in  the  middle  of  the  vast  plains,  by 
some  limestone  springs^  at  one  end  of  a  line  of  dark  acacias. 
There  were  rocky  koppies  two  or  three  miles  off  on  either 
hand.  From  the  tents^  and  white-topped  wagons,  we  could 
see  the  game  grazing  on  the  open  flats,  or  among  the  scat- 
tered wizened  thorns.  The  skies  were  overcast,  and  the 
nights  cool;  in  the  evenings  the  camp-fires  blazed  in  front 
of  the  tents,  and  after  supper  we  gathered  round  them, 
talking,  or  sitting  silently,  or  listening  to  Kermit  strum- 
ming on  his  mandolin. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp  we  rode  out,  hoping 
to  get  either  rhino  or  giraffe;  we  needed  additional  speci- 
mens of  both  for  the  naturalists,  who  especially  wanted 
cow  giraffes.  It  was  cloudy  and  cool,  and  the  common 
game  was  shy;  though  we  needed  meat,  I  could  not  get 
within  fair  range  of  the  wildebeest,  hartebeest,  topi,  or  big 
gazelle;  however  I  killed  a  couple  of  tommies,  one  by  a 
good  shot,  the  other  running,  after  I  had  missed  him  in 
rather  scandalous  fashion  while  he  was  standing. 

An  hour  or  two  after  leaving  the  tents  we  made  out 
on  the  sky-line  a  couple  of  miles  to  our  left  some  objects 
which  scrutiny  showed  to  be  giraffe.  After  coming  within 
a  mile  the  others  halted  and  I  rode  ahead  on  the  tranquil 
sorrel,  heading  for  a  point  toward  which  the  giraffe  were 
walking;  stalking  was  an  impossibility,  and  I  was  pre- 
pared either  to  manoeuvre  for  a  shot  on  foot,  or  to  ride 
them,  as  circumstances  might  determine.  I  carried  the 
little  Springfield,  being  desirous  of  testing  the  small,  solid, 
sharp-pointed  army  bullet  on  the  big  beasts.  As  I  rode, 
a  wildebeest  bull  played  around  me  within  two  hundred 

204 


HUNTING    IN   THE    SOTIK  205 

yards,  prancing,  flourishing  his  tail,  tossing  his  head  and 
uttering  his  grunting  bellow;  it  almost  seemed  as  if  he  knew 
I  would  not  shoot  at  him,  or  as  if  for  the  moment  he  had 
been  infected  with  the  absurd  tameness  which  the  giraffe 
showed. 

There  were  seven  giraffes,  a  medium-sized  bull,  four 
cows,  and  two  young  ones;  and,  funnily  enough,  the  young 
ones  were  by  far  the  shyest  and  most  suspicious.  I  did 
not  want  to  kill  a  bull  unless  it  was  exceptionally  large; 
whereas  I  did  want  two  cows  and  a  young  one,  for  the 
museum.  When  quarter  of  a  mile  away  I  dismounted, 
threw  the  reins  over  Tranquillity's  head — whereat  the  good 
placid  old  fellow  at  once  began  grazing — and  walked  di- 
agonally toward  the  biggest  cow,  which  was  ahead  of  the 
others.  The  tall,  handsome,  ungainly  creatures  were  noth- 
ing like  as  shy  as  the  smaller  game  had  shown  themselves 
that  morning,  and  of  course  they  offered  such  big  targets 
that  three  hundred  yards  was  a  fair  range  for  them.  At 
two  hundred  and  sixty  yards  I  fired  at  the  big  cow  as  she 
stood  almost  facing  me,  twisting  and  curling  her  tail.  The 
bullet  struck  fair  and  she  was  off  at  a  hurried,  clumsy 
gallop.  I  gave  her  another  bullet,  but  it  was  not  neces- 
sary, and  down  she  went.  The  second  cow,  a  fine  young 
heifer,  was  now  cantering  across  my  front,  and  with  two 
more  shots  I  got  her;  the  sharp-pointed  bullets  penetrating 
well,  and  not  splitting  into  fragments,  but  seeming  to  cause 
a  rending  shock. 

I  met  with  much  more  difficulty  in  trying  to  kill  the 
young  one  I  needed.  I  walked  and  trotted  a  mile  after  the 
herd.  The  old  ones  showed  little  alarm,  standing  again 
and  again  to  look  at  me.  Finally  I  shot  one  of  the  two  young 
ones,  at  four  hundred  and  ten  long  paces,  while  a  cow  stood 
much  nearer,  and  the  bull  only  three  hundred  yards  off. 
But  this  was  not  all.  The  four  survivors  did  not  leave  even 
after  such  an  experience,  but  stayed  in  the  plain,  not  far 
off,  for  several  hours,  and  thereby  gave  Kermit  a  chance 
to  do  something  much  better  worth  while  than   shooting 


203  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

them.  His  shoulder  was  sore,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  use  a 
rifle,  and  so  was  devoting  himself  to  his  camera,  which 
one  of  his  men  always  carried.  With  this,  after  the  exercise 
of  much  patience,  he  finally  managed  to  take  a  number  of 
pictures  of  the  giraffe,  getting  within  fifty  yards  of  the  bull. 

Nor  were  the  giraffe  the  only  animals  that  showed  a 
tameness  bordering  on  stupidity.  Soon  afterward  we  made 
out  three  rhino,  a  mile  away.  They  were  out  in  the  bare 
plain,  alternately  grazing  and  enjoying  a  noontide  rest; 
the  bull  by  himself,  the  cow  with  her  calf  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  off.  There  was  not  a  scrap  of  cover,  but  we  walked 
up  wind  to  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  bull. 
Even  then  he  did  not  seem  to  see  us,  but  the  tick-birds, 
which  were  clinging  to  his  back  and  sides,  gave  the  alarm, 
and  he  trotted  to  and  fro,  uncertain  as  to  the  cause  of  the 
disturbance.  If  Heller  had  not  had  his  hands  full  with  the 
giraffes  I  might  have  shot  the  bull  rhino;  but  his  horn 
and  bulk  of  body,  though  fair,  were  not  remarkable,  and  I 
did  not  molest  him.  He  went  toward  the  cow,  which  left 
her  calf  and  advanced  toward  him  in  distinctly  bellicose 
style;  then  she  recognized  him,  her  calf  trotted  up,  and 
the  three  animals  stood  together,  tossing  their  heads,  and 
evidently  trying  to  make  out  what  was  near  them.  But 
we  were  down  wind,  and  they  do  not  see  well,  with  their 
little  twinkling  pig's  eyes.  We  were  anxious  not  to  be 
charged  by  the  cow  and  calf,  as  her  horn  was  very  poor,  and 
it  would  have  been  unpleasant  to  be  obliged  to  shoot  her, 
and  so  we  drew  off. 

Next  day,  when  Kermit  and  I  were  out  alone  with  our 
gun-bearers  we  saw  another  rhino,  a  bull,  with  a  stubby 
horn.  This  rhino,  like  the  others  of  the  neighborhood,  was 
enjoying  his  noonday  rest  in  the  open,  miles  from  cover; 
*'Look  at  him,"  said  Kermit,  ''standing  there  in  the  middle ^ 
of  the  African  plain,  deep  in  prehistoric  thought."  Indeed 
the  rhinoceros  does  seem  like  a  survival  from  the  elder 
world  that  has  vanished;  he  was  in  place  in  the  pliocene; 
he  would  not  have  been  out  of  place  in  the  miocene;    but 


208  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

nowadays  he  can  only  exist  at  all  In  regions  that  have  lagged 
behind,  while  the  rest  of  the  world,  for  good  or  for  evil,  has 
gone  forward.  Like  other  beasts,  rhinos  differ  in  habits  in 
different  places.  This  prehensile-lipped  species  is  every- 
where a  browser,  feeding  on  the  twigs  and  leaves  of  the 
bushes  and  low  trees;  but  in  their  stomachs  I  have  found 
long  grass  stems  mixed  with  the  twig  tips  and  leaves  of 
stunted  bush.  In  some  regions  they  live  entirely  in  rather 
thick  bush;  whereas  on  the  plains  over  which  we  were 
hunting  the  animals  haunted  the  open  by  preference,  feed- 
ing through  thin  bush,  where  they  were  visible  miles  away, 
and  usually  taking  their  rest,  either  standing  or  lying,  out 
on  the  absolutely  bare  plains.  They  drank  at  the  small 
shallow  rain  pools,  seemingly  once  every  twenty-four 
hours;  and  I  saw  one  going  to  water  at  noon,  and  others 
just  at  dark;  and  their  hours  for  feeding  and  resting  were 
also  irregular,  though  they  were  apt  to  lie  down  or  stand 
motionless  during  the  middle  of  the  day.  Doubtless  in 
very  hot  weather  they  prefer  to  rest  under  a  tree;  but  we 
were  hunting  in  cool  weather,  during  which  they  paid  no 
heed  whatever  to  the  sun.  Their  sight  is  very  bad,  their 
scent  and  hearing  acute. 

On  this  day  Kermit  was  shooting  from  his  left  shoulder, 
and  did  very  well,  killing  a  fine  Roberts'  gazelle,  and  three 
topi;  I  also  shot  a  topi  bull,  as  Heller  wished  a  good  series 
for  the  National  Museum.  The  topi  and  wildebeest  I  shot 
were  all  killed  at  long  range,  the  average  distance  for  the 
first  shot  being  over  three  hundred  and  fifty  yards;  and  in 
the  Sotik,  where  hunters  were  few,  the  game  seemed  if  any- 
thing shyer  than  on  the  Athi  Plains,  where  hunters  were 
many.  But  there  were  wide  and  inexplicable  differences 
in  this  respect  among  the  animals  of  the  same  species.  One 
day  I  wished  to  get  a  doe  tommy  for  the  museum;  I  saw 
scores,  but  they  were  all  too  shy  to  let  me  approach  within 
shot;  yet  four  times  I  passed  within  eighty  yards  of  bucks 
of  the  same  species  which  paid  hardly  any  heed  to  me. 
Another  time  I  walked   for  five  minutes  alongside  a  big 


73    ^ 


210  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

party  of  Roberts'  gazelles,  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards, 
trying  in  vain  to  pick  out  a  buck  worth  shooting;  half  an 
hour  afterward  I  came  on  another  party  which  contained 
such  a  buck,  but  they  would  not  let  me  get  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile. 

Wildebeest  are  usually  the  shyest  of  all  game.  Each 
herd  has  its  own  recognized  beat,  to  which  it  ordinarily 
keeps.  Near  this  camp,  there  was  a  herd  almost  always 
to  be  found  somewhere  near  the  southern  end  of  a  big  hill 
two  miles  east  of  us;  while  a  solitary  bull  was  invariably 
seen  around  the  base  of  a  small  hill  a  couple  of  miles  south- 
west of  us.  The  latter  was  usually  in  the  company  of  a 
mixed  herd  of  Roberts'  and  Thomson's  gazelles.  Here, 
as  everywhere,  we  found  the  different  species  of  game  as- 
sociating freely  with  one  another.  One  little  party  inter- 
ested us  much.  It  consisted  of  two  Roberts'  bucks^  two 
Roberts'  does,  and  one  Thomson's  doe,  which  was  evi- 
dently a  maitresse  femme,  of  strongly  individualized  char- 
acter. The  four  big  gazelles  had  completely  surrendered 
their  judgment  to  that  of  the  little  tommy  doe.  She  was  the 
acknowledged  leader;  when  she  started  they  started  and 
followed  in  whatever  direction  she  led;  when  she  stopped 
they  stopped;  if  she  found  a  given  piece  of  pasture  good, 
upon  it  they  grazed  contentedly.  Around  this  camp  the  topi 
were  as  common  as  hartebeest;  they  might  be  found  singly, 
or  in  small  parties,  perhaps  merely  of  a  bull,  a  cow,  and  a 
calf;  or  they  might  be  mixed  with  zebra,  wildebeest^  and 
hartebeest.  Like  the  hartebeest,  but  less  frequently,  they 
would  mount  ant-hills  to  get  a  better  look  over  the  country. 
The  wildebeest  were  extraordinarily  tenacious  of  life,  and  the 
hartebeest  and  topi  only  less  so.  After  wounded  individ- 
uals of  all  three  kinds  I  more  than  once  had  sharp  runs 
on  horseback.  On  one  occasion  I  wounded  a  wildebeest 
bull  a  couple  of  miles  from  camp;  I  was  riding  my  zebra- 
shaped  brown  pony,  who  galloped  well;  and  after  a  sharp 
run  through  the  bush  I  overhauled  the  wildebeest;  but 
when  I  jumped  off,  the  pony  bolted  for  camp,  and  as  he 


Giraffe  at  home 
From  phoiograjtli^  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


212 


AFRICAN   GAIVIE  TRAILS 


disappeared    in    one    direction   my   game    disappeared    in 
the  other. 

At  last  a  day  came  when  I  saw  a  rhino  with  a  big  body 
and  a  good  horn.    We  had  been  riding  for  a  couple  of  hours; 

the  game  was  all 
around  us.  Two  gi- 
raffes stared  at  us 
with  silly  curiosity 
rather  than  alarm; 
twice  I  was  within 
range  of  the  bigger 
one.  At  last  Ba- 
khari,  the  gun- 
bearer,  pointed  to 
a  gray  mass  on  the 
plain,  and  a  glance 
through  the  glasses 
showed  that  it  was 
a  rhino  lying  asleep 
with  his  legs  doub- 
led  under  him. 
He  proved  to  be 
a  big  bull,  with  a 
front  horn  nearly 
twenty  -  six  inches 
long.  I  was  anx- 
ious to  try  the 
sharp-pointed  bul- 
lets of  the  little 
Springfield  rifle  on 
him;  and  Cuning- 
hame  and  I,  treading  cautiously,  walked  up  wind  straight 
toward  him,  our  horses  following  a  hundred  yards  be- 
hind. He  was  waked  by  the  tick-birds,  and  twisted  his 
head  to  and  fro,  but  at  first  did  not  seem  to  hear  us, 
although  looking  in  our  direction.  When  we  were  a  hun- 
dred yards  off  he  rose  and  faced  us,  huge  and  threatening, 


Bluffs  near  one  of  our  camping-places 
From  a  photograph  by  Edinutid  Heller 


HUNTING   IN   THE   SOTIK 


213 


head  up  and  tail  erect.  But  he  lacked  heart  after  all.  I 
fired  into  his  throat,  and  instead  of  charging,  he  whipped 
round  and  was  off  at  a  gallop,  immediately  disap})earing 
over  a  slight  rise.  We  ran  back  to  our  horses,  mounted, 
and  galloped  after  him.  He  had  a  long  start,  and,  though 
evidently  feeling  his  wound,  was  going  strong;  and  it  was 
some  time  before  we  overtook  him.  I  tried  to  gallop 
alongside,  but  he  kept 
swerving  ;  so  jumping 
off  (fortunately,  I  was 
riding  Tranquillity)  I 
emptied  the  magazine 
at  his  quarters  and 
flank.  Rapid  galloping 
does  not  tend  to  pro- 
mote accuracy  of  aim; 
the  rhino  went  on;  and, 
remounting,  I  followed, 
overtook  him,  and  re- 
peated the  perform- 
ance. This  time  he 
wheeled  and  faced 
round,  evidently  with 
the  intention  of  charg- 
ing, but  a  bullet  straight 
into  his  chest  took  all 
the  fight  out  of  him,  and 

he  continued  his  flight.  But  his  race  was  evidently  run, 
and  when  I  next  overtook  him  I  brought  him  down.  I 
had  put  nine  bullets  into  him;  and  though  they  had  done 
their  work  well,  and  I  was  pleased  to  have  killed  the  huge 
brute  with  the  little  sharp-pointed  bullets  of  the  Springfield, 
I  was  confirmed  in  my  judgment  that  for  me  personally  the 
big  Holland  rifle  was  the  best  weapon  for  heavy  game, 
ahhough  I  did  not  care  as  much  for  it  against  lighter- 
bodied  beasts  like  lions.  In  all  we  galloped  four  miles  after 
this  wounded  rhino  bull. 


Striped  Iiyena  trapped  by  Heller 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


214  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

We  sent  a  porter  to  bring  out  Heller,  and  an  ox  wagon 
on  which  to  take  the  skin  to  camp.  While  waiting  for  them 
I  killed  a  topi  bull,  at  two  hundred  and  sixty  yards,  with  one 
bullet,  and  a  wildebeest  bull  with  a  dozen;  I  crippled  him 
with  my  first  shot  at  three  hundred  and  sixty  yards,  and 
then  walked  and  trotted  after  him  a  couple  of  miles,  getting 
running  and  standing  shots  at  from  three  hundred  to  five 
hundred  yards.  I  hit  him  several  times.  As  with  every- 
thing else  I  shot,  the  topi  and  wildebeest  were  preserved 
as  specimens  for  the  museum,  and  their  flesh  used  for  food. 
Our  porters  had  much  to  do,  and  they  did  it  well,  partly 
because  they  were  fed  well.  We  killed  no  game  of  which  we 
did  not  make  the  fullest  use.  It  would  be  hard  to  convey  to 
those  who  have  not  seen  it  on  the  ground  an  accurate  idea  of 
its  abundance.  When  I  was  walking  up  to  this  rhino  there 
were  in  sight  two  giraffes,  several  wildebeest  bulls,  and  herds 
of  hartebeest,  topi,  zebra,  and  the  big  and  little  gazelles. 

In  addition  to  being  a  mighty  hunter,  and  an  adept  in 
the  by  no  means  easy  work  of  handling  a  large  safari  in 
the  wilderness,  Cuninghame  was  also  a  good  field  naturalist 
and  taxidermist;  and  at  this  camp  we  got  so  many  speci- 
mens that  he  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  his  time  helping 
Heller;  and  they  pressed  into  the  work  at  times  even  Tarl- 
ton.  Accordingly  Kermit  and  I  generally  went  off  by  our- 
selves, either  together  or  separately.  Once,  however,  Kermit 
went  with  Tarlton,  and  was  as  usual  lucky  with  cheetahs, 
killing  two.  Tarlton  was  an  accomplished  elephant,  buf- 
falo, and  rhino  hunter,  but  he  preferred  the  chase  of  the  lion 
to  all  other  kinds  of  sport;  and  if  lions  were  not  to  be  found 
he  liked  to  follow  anything  else  he  could  gallop  on  horse- 
back. Kermit  was  also  a  good  and  hard  rider.  On  this 
occasion  they  found  a  herd  of  eland,  and  galloped  into  it. 
The  big  bull  they  overhauled  at  once,  but  saw  that  his 
horns  were  poor  and  left  him.  Then  they  followed  a  fine 
cow  with  an  unusually  good  head.  She  started  at  a  rattling 
pace,  and  once  leaped  clear  over  another  cow  that  got  in 
her  way;   but  they  rode  into  her  after  a  mile's  smart  gallop 


HUNTING   IN  THE   SOTIK  215 

— not  a  racing  gallop  by  any  means — and  after  that  she 
was  as  manageable  as  a  tame  ox.  Cantering  and  trotting 
within  thirty  yards  of  her  on  either  quarter  they  drove 
her  toward  camp;  but  when  it  was  still  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  distant  they  put  up  a  cheetah,  and  tore  after  it;  and 
they  overtook  and  killed  it  just  before  it  reached  cover.  A 
cheetah  with  a  good  start  can  only  be  overtaken  by  hard 
running.  This  one  behaved  just  as  did  the  others  they 
ran  down.  For  quarter  of  a  mile  no  animal  in  the  world 
has  a  cheetah's  speed;  but  he  cannot  last.  When  chased 
the  cheetahs  did  not  sprint,  but  contented  themselves  with 
galloping  ahead  of  the  horses;  at  first  they  could  easily 
keep  their  distance,  but  after  a  mile  or  two  their  strength 
and  wind  gave  out,  and  then  they  always  crouched  flat  to 
the  earth,  and  were  shot  without  their  making  any  attempt  to 
charge.  But  a  wart-hog  boar  which  Kermiit  ran  down  the 
same  day  and  shot  with  his  revolver  did  charge,  and  wickedly. 
While  running  one  of  his  cheetahs  Kermit  put  up  two 
old  wildebeest  bulls,  and  they  joined  in  the  procession, 
looking  as  if  they  too  were  pursuing  the  cheetah;  the  chee- 
tah ran  first,  the  two  bulls,  bounding  and  switching  their 
tails,  came  next,  and  Kermit,,  racing  in  the  rear,  gained 
steadily.  Wildebeest  are  the  oddest  in  nature  and  conduct, 
and  in  many  ways  the  most  interesting,  of  all  antelopes. 
There  is  in  their  temper  something  queer,  fiery,  eccentric, 
and  their  actions  are  abrupt  and  violent.  A  single  bull  will 
stand  motionless  with  head  raised  to  stare  at  an  intruder 
until  the  latter  is  quarter  of  a  mile  off;  then  down  goes  his 
head,  his  tail  is  lashed  up  and  around,  and  off  he  gallops, 
plunging,  kicking,  and  shaking  his  head.  He  may  go 
straight  away,  he  may  circle  round,  or  even  approach  nearer 
to,  the  intruder;  and  then  he  halts  again  to  stare  motion- 
less, and  perhaps  to  utter  his  grunt  of  alarm  and  defiance. 
A  herd  when  approached,  after  fixed  staring  will  move  off, 
perhaps  at  a  canter.  Soon  the  leaders  make  a  half  wheel, 
and  lead  their  followers  in  a  semicircle;  suddenly  a  couple 
of  old  bulls  leave  the  rest,  and  at  a  tearing  gaUop  describe  a 


tie 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


semicircle  In  exactly  the  opposite  direction,  racing  by  their 
comrades  as  these  canter  the  other  way.  With  one  accord 
the  whole  troop  may  then  halt  and  stare  again  at  the  object 
they  suspect;  then  off  they  all  go  at  a  headlong  run,  kick- 
ing and  bucking,  tearing  at  full  speed  in  one  direction,  then 
suddenly  wheeling  in  semicircles  so  abrupt  as  to  be  almost 


Mr.  Roosevelt,  rhino,  and  bustard  shot  from  rhino 
From  a  phoiograpJi  by  Kcrmit  Roosevelt 

zigzags,  the  dust  flying  in  clouds;  and  two  bulls  may  sud- 
denly drop  to  their  knees  and  for  a  moment  or  two  fight 
furiously  in  their  own  peculiar  fashion.  By  careful  stalk- 
ing Kermit  got  some  good  pictures  of  the  wildebeest  in 
spite  of  their  wariness.  Like  other  game  they  seem  most 
apt  to  lie  down  during  the  heat  of  the  day;  but  they  may 
lie  down  at  night  too;  at  any  rate,  I  noticed  one  herd  of 
hartebeest  which  after  feeding  through  the  late  afternoon 
lay  down  at  nightfall. 

After  getting  the  bull  rhino.  Heller  needed  a  cow  and 
calf  to  complete  the  group;    and   Kermit  and  I  got  him 


HUNTING   IN  THE   SOTIK  217 

what  he  needed,  one  day  when  we  were  out  alone  with  our 
gun-bearers.  About  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  we  made 
out  the  huge  gray  bulk  of  the  rhino,  standing  in  the  bare 
plain,  with  not  so  much  as  a  bush  two  feet  high  within 
miles;  and  we  soon  also  made  out  her  calf  beside  her. 
Getting  the  wind  right  we  rode  up  within  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  and  then  dismounted  and  walked  slowly  toward  her. 
It  seemed  impossible  that  on  that  bare  plain  we  could 
escape  even  her  dull  vision,  for  she  stood  with  her  head  in 
our  direction;  yet  she  did  not  see  us,  and  actually  lay 
down  as  we  walked  toward  her.  Careful  examination 
through  the  glasses  showed  that  she  was  an  unusually  big 
cow,  with  thick  horns  of  fair  length — twenty-three  inches 
and  thirteen  inches  respectively.  Accordingly  we  proceeded, 
making  as  little  noise  as  possible.  At  fifty  yards  she  made 
us  out,  and  jumped  to  her  feet  with  unwieldy  agility.  Kneel- 
ing I  sent  the  bullet  from  the  heavy  Holland  just  in  front  of 
her  right  shoulder  as  she  half  faced  me.  It  went  through 
her  vitals,  lodging  behind  the  opposite  shoulder;  and  at 
once  she  began  the  curious  death  waltz  which  is  often, 
though  by  no  means  always,  the  sign  of  immediate  disso- 
lution in  a  mortally  wounded  rhino.  Kermit  at  once  put 
a  bullet  from  his  Winchester  behind  her  shoulder;  for  it  is 
never  safe  to  take  chances  with  a  rhino;  and  we  shot  the 
calf,  which  when  dying  uttered  a  screaming  whistle,  al- 
most like  that  of  a  small  steam-engine.  In  a  few  seconds 
both  fell,  and  we  walked  up  to  them,  examined  them,  and 
then  continued  our  ride,  sending  in  a  messenger  to  bring 
Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  an  ox  wagon  to  the  carcasses.    . 

The  stomach  of  this  rhino  contained  some  grass  stems 
and  blades,  some  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  bushes,  but  chiefly 
the  thick,  thorny,  fleshy  leaves  of  a  kind  of  euphorbia.  As 
the  juice  of  the  euphorbia's  cactus-like  leaves  is  acrid 
enough  to  blister — not  to  speak  of  the  thorns — this  suffices 
to  show  what  a  rhino's  palate  regards  as  agreeably  stimu- 
lating. This  species  of  rhino^  by  the  way,  affords  a  curious 
illustration  of  how  blind  many  men  who  live  much  of  their 


218  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

lives  out-doors  may  be  to  facts  which  stare  them  in  the 
face.  For  years  most  South  African  hunters,  and  most 
naturahsts,  believed  in  the  existence  of  two  species  of  pre- 
hensile-lipped, or  so-called  ''black,"  rhinoceros:  one  with 
the  front  horn  much  the  longer,  one  with  the  rear  horn  at 
least  equal  to  the  front.  It  was  Selous,  a  singularly  clear- 
sighted and  keen  observer,  who  first  proved  conclusively 
that  the  difference  was  purely  imaginary.  Now,  the  curi- 
ous thing  is  that  these  experienced  hunters  usually  attrib- 
uted entirely  different  temperaments  to  these  two  imagi- 
nary species.  The  first  kind,  that  with  the  long  front  horn, 
they  described  as  a  miracle  of  dangerous  ferocity,  and  the 
second  as  comparatively  mild  and  inoffensive;  and  these 
veterans  (Drummond  is  an  instance)  persuaded  themselves 
that  this  was  true,  although  they  were  writing  in  each  case 
of  identically  the  same  animal! 

After  leaving  the  dead  rhinos  we  rode  for  several  miles, 
over  a  plain  dotted  with  game,  and  took  our  lunch  at 
the  foot  of  a  big  range  of  hills,  by  a  rapid  little  brook,  run- 
ning under  a  fringe  of  shady  thorns.  Then  we  rode  back 
to  camp.  Lines  of  zebra  filed  past  on  the  horizon.  Os- 
triches fled  while  we  were  yet  far  off.  Topi,  hartebeest, 
wildebeest,  and  gazelle  gazed  at  us  as  we  rode  by,  the  sun- 
light throwing  their  shapes  and  colors  into  bold  relief 
against  the  parched  brown  grass.  I  had  an  hour  to  my- 
self after  reaching  camp,  and  spent  it  with  Lowell's  "Es- 
says." I  doubt  whether  any  man  takes  keener  enjoyment 
in  the  wilderness  than  he  who  also  keenly  enjoys  many 
other  sides  of  life;  just  as  no  man  can  relish  books  more 
than  some  at  least  of  those  who  also  love  horse  and  rifle 
and  the  winds  that  blow  across  lonely  plains  and  through 
the  gorges  of  the  mountains. 

Next  morning  a  lion  roared  at  dawn  so  near  camp  that 
we  sallied  forth  after  him.  We  did  not  find  him,  but  we 
enjoyed  our  three  hours'  ride  through  the  fresh  air  before 
breakfast,  v^ith  the  game  as  usual  on  every  hand.  Some 
of  the  game  showed  tameness,  some  wildness,  the  difl^erence 


.x-»-^. 


*ki»a3> 


Wildebeest  at  home 

Tivo  bulls  may  suddenly  drop  to  their  knees  and  for  a  moment  or  two  fightfuriously 

From  pkotograpJis  by  Kermii  Roosevelt 


220  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

being  not  between  species  and  species,  but  between  given 
individuals  of  almost  every  species.  While  we  were  ab- 
sent two  rhinos  passed  close  by  camp,  and  stopped  to  stare 
curiously  at  it;  we  saw  them  later  as  they  trotted  away,  but 
their  horns  were  not  good  enough  to  tempt  us. 

At  a  distance  the  sunlight  plays  pranks  with  the  color- 
ing of  the  animals.  Cock  ostriches  always  show  jet  black, 
and  are  visible  at  a  greater  distance  than  any  of  the  com- 
mon game;  the  neutral  tint  of  the  hens  making  them  far 
less  conspicuous.  Both  cocks  and  hens  are  very  wary, 
sharp-sighted,  and  hard  to  approach.  Next  to  the  cock 
ostrich  in  conspicuousness  comes  the  wildebeest^  because 
it  shows  black  in  most  lights;  yet  when  headed  away  from 
the  on-looker,  the  sun  will  often  make  the  backs  of  a  herd 
look  whitish  in  the  distance.  Wildebeest  are  warier  than 
m.ost  other  game.  Round  this  camp  the  topi  were  as  tame 
as  the  hartebeest;  they  look  very  dark  in  most  lights,  only 
less  dark  than  the  wildebeect,  and  so  are  also  conspicuous. 
The  hartebeest  change  from  a  deep  brown  to  a  light  foxy 
red,  according  to  the  way  they  stand  toward  the  sun; 
and  when  a  herd  was  feeding  away  from  us,  their  white 
sterns  showed  when  a  very  long  way  off.  The  zebra's 
stripes  cease  to  be  visible  after  he  is  three  hundred  yards 
off,  but  in  many  lights  he  glistens  white  in  the  far  dis- 
tance, and  is  then  very  conspicuous;  on  this  day  I  came 
across  a  mixed  herd  of  zebra  and  eland  in  thin  bush, 
and  when  still  a  long  way  off  the  zebras  caught  the  eye, 
while  their  larger  companions  were  as  yet  hardly  to  be 
made  out  without  field-glasses.  The  gazelles  usually  show 
as  sandy-colored,  and  are  therefore  rather  less  conspicuous 
than  the  others  when  still;  but  they  are  constantly  in  mo- 
tion, and  in  some  lights  show  up  as  almost  white.  When 
they  are  far  off  the  sun-rays  may  make  any  of  these  ani- 
mals look  very  dark  or  very  light.  In  fact  all  of  them  are 
conspicuous  at  long  distances,  and  none  of  them  make  any 
effort  to  escape  observation  as  do  certain  kinds  that  haunt 
dense  bush  and  forest.     But  constant  allowance  must  be 


HUNTING   IN   THE   SOTIK  221 

made  for  the  wide  variations  among  individuals.  Ordi- 
narily tommies  are  the  tamest  of  the  game,  with  the  big 
gazelle  and  the  zebra  next;  but  no  two  herds  will  behave 
alike;  and  I  have  seen  a  wildebeest  bull  look  at  me  motion- 
less within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  while  the  zebras, 
tommies,  and  big  gazelles  which  were  his  companions  fled 
in  panic;  and  I  left  him  still  standing,  as  I  walked  after  the 
gazelles,  to  kill  a  buck  for  the  table.     The  game  is  usually 


Rhiiiu  and  young 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 

sensitive  to  getting  the  hunter's  wind;  but  on  these  plains 
I  have  again  and  again  seen  game  stand  looking  at  us  within 
fairly  close  range  to  leeward,  and  yet  on  the  same  day 
seen  the  same  kind  of  game  flee  in  mad  fright  when  twice 
the  distance  to  windward.  Sometimes  there  are  inexplicable 
variations  between  the  conduct  of  beasts  in  one  locality  and 
in  another.  In  East  Africa  the  hyenas  seem  only  occasion- 
ally to  crunch  the  long  bones  of  the  biggest  dead  animals; 
whereas  Cuninghame,  who  pointed  out  this  fact  to  me, 
stated  that  in  South  Africa  the  hyenas,  of  the  same  kind, 
always  crunched  up  the  big  bones,  eating  both  the  marrow 
and  fragments  of  the  bone  itself. 


222  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Now  and  then  the  game  will  choose  a  tree  as  a  rubbing 
post,  and  if  it  is  small  will  entirely  destroy  the  tree;  and  I 
have  seen  them  use  for  the  same  purpose  an  oddly  shaped 
stone,  one  corner  of  which  they  had  worn  quite  smooth. 
They  have  stamping  grounds,  small  patches  of  bare  earth 
from  which  they  have  removed  even  the  roots  of  the  grass 
and  bushes  by  the  trampling  of  their  hoofs,  leaving  nothing 
but  a  pool  of  dust.  One  evening  I  watched  some  zebras 
stringing  slowly  along  in  a  line  which  brought  them  past 
a  couple  of  these  stamping  grounds.  As  they  came  in 
succession  to  each  bare  place  half  the  herd,  one  after  an- 
other, lay  down  and  rolled  to  and  fro,  sending  up  spurts  of 
dust  so  thick  that  the  animal  was  hidden  from  sight;  while 
perhaps  a  companion,  which  did  not  roll,  stood  near  by, 
seemingly  to  enjoy  the  dust. 

On  this  same  evening  we  rode  campward  facing  a  won- 
derful sunset.  The  evening  was  lowering  and  overcast. 
The  darkening  plains  stretched  dim  and  vague  into  the 
far  distance.  The  sun  went  down  under  a  frowning  sky, 
behind  shining  sheets  of  rain;  and  it  turned  their  radiance 
to  an  angry  splendor  of  gold  and  murky  crimson. 

At  this  camp  the  pretty  little  Livingstone's  wheatears 
or  chats  were  very  familiar,  flitting  within  a  few  yards 
of  the  tents.  They  were  the  earliest  birds  to  sing.  Just 
before  our  eyes  could  distinguish  the  first  faint  streak  of 
dawn  first  one  and  then  another  of  them  would  begin  to 
sing,  apparently  either  on  the  ground  or  in  the  air,  until 
there  was  a  chorus  of  their  sweet  music.  Then  they  were 
silent  again  until  the  sun  was  about  to  rise.  We  always 
heard  them  when  we  made  a  very  early  start  to  hunt.  By 
the  way,  with  the  game  of  the  plains  and  the  thin  bush,  we 
found  that  nothing  was  gained  by  getting  out  early  in  the 
morning;  we  were  quite  as  apt  to  get  what  we  wanted  in 
the  evening  or  indeed  at  high  noon. 

The  last  day  at  this  camp  Kermit,  Tarlton,  and  I  spent 
on  a  twelve  hours'  lion  hunt.  I  opened  the  day  inauspi- 
ciously,  close  to  camp,  by  missing  a  zebra,  which  we  wished 


HUNTING   IN  THE  SOTIK  223 

for  the  porters.  Then  Kermit,  by  a  good  shot,  killed  a  tom- 
my buck  with  the  best  head  we  had  yet  gotten.  Early  in 
the  afternoon  we  reached  our  objective,  some  high  kop- 
pies,  broken  by  cliffs  and  covered  with  brush.  There 
were  klipspringers  on  these  koppies,  little  rock-loving  ante- 
lopes, with  tiny  hoofs  and  queer  brittle  hair;  they  are  mar- 
vellous jumpers  and  continually  utter  a  bleating  whistle. 
I  broke  the  neck  of  one  as  it  ran  at  a  distance  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards;  but  the  shot  was  a  fluke,  and  did 
not  make  amends  for  the  way  I  had  missed  the  zebra  in 
the  morning.  Among  the  thick  brush  on  these  hills  were 
huge  euphorbias^  aloes  bearing  masses  of  orange  flowers, 
and  a  cactus-like  ground  plant  with  pretty  pink  blossoms. 
All  kinds  of  game  from  the  plains,  even  rhino,  had  wan- 
dered over  these  hill-tops. 

But  what  especially  interested  us  was  that  we  immedi- 
ately found  fresh  beds  of  lions,  and  one  regular  lair.  Again 
and  again,  as  we  beat  cautiously  through  the  bushes^  the 
rank  smell  of  the  beasts  smote  our  nostrils.  At  last,  as  we 
sat  at  the  foot  of  one  koppie,  Kermit  spied  through  his 
glasses  a  lion  on  the  side  of  the  koppie  opposite,  the  last 
and  biggest;  and  up  it  we  climbed.  On  the  very  summit  was 
a  mass  of  cleft  and  broken  bowlders,  and  while  on  these 
Kermit  put  up  two  lions  from  the  bushes  which  crowded 
beneath  them.  I  missed  a  running  shot  at  the  lioness^  as 
she  made  off  through  the  brush.  He  probably  hit  the  lion, 
and,  very  cautiously,  with  rifles  at  the  ready,  we  beat  through 
the  thick  cover  in  hopes  to  find  it;  but  in  vain.  Then 
we  began  a  hunt  for  the  lioness,  as  apparently  she  had  not 
left  the  koppie.  Soon  one  of  the  gun-bearers,  who  was 
standing  on  a  big  stone,  peering  under  some  thick  bushes, 
beckoned  excitedly  to  me;  and  when  I  jumped  up  beside 
him  he  pointed  at  the  lioness.  In  a  second  I  made  her 
out.  The  sleek  sinister  creature  lay  not  ten  paces  off,  her 
sinuous  body  following  the  curves  of  the  rock  as  she  crouched 
flat  looking  straight  at  me.  A  stone  covered  the  lower  part, 
and  the  left  of  the  upper  part,  of  her  head;   but  I  saw  her 


224  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

two  unwinking  green  eyes  looking  Into  mine.  As  she 
could  have  reached  me  in  two  springs,  perhaps  in  one, 
I  wished  to  shoot  straight;  but  I  had  to  avoid  the  rock 
which  covered  the  lower  part  of  her  face,  and  moreover  I 
fired  a  little  too  much  to  the  left.  The  bullet  went  through 
the  side  of  her  head,  and  in  between  the  neck  and  shoulder, 
inflicting  a  mortal,  but  not  immediately  fatal,  wound. 
However  it  knocked  her  off  the  little  ledge  on  which  she 
was  lying,  and  instead  of  charging  she  rushed  uphill.  We 
promptly  followed,  and  again  clambered  up  the  mass 
of  bowlders  at  the  top.  Peering  over  the  one  on  which 
I  had  climbed  there  was  the  lioness  directly  at  its  foot,  not 
twelve  feet  away,  lying  flat  on  her  belly;  I  could  only 
see  the  aftermost  third  of  her  back.  I  at  once  fired  into 
her  spine;  with  appalling  grunts  she  dragged  herself  a  few 
paces  downhill;  and  another  bullet  behind  the  shoulder 
finished  her. 

She  was  skinned  as  rapidly  as  possible;  and  just  before 
sundown  we  left  the  koppie.  At  its  foot  was  a  deserted 
Masai  cattle  kraal  and  a  mile  from  this  was  a  shallow, 
muddy  pool,  fouled  by  the  countless  herds  of  game  that 
drank  thereat.  Toward  this  we  went,  so  that  the  thirsty 
horses  and  men  might  drink  their  full.  As  we  came  near 
we  saw  three  rhinoceros  leaving  the  pool.  It  was  already 
too  dusk  for  good  shooting,  and  we  were  rather  relieved 
when,  after  some  inspection,  they  trotted  off  and  stood  at 
a  little  distance  in  the  plain.  Our  men  and  horses  drank, 
and  then  we  began  our  ten  miles'  march  through  the  dark- 
ness to  camp.  One  of  Kermit's  gun-bearers  saw  a  puff 
adder  (among  the  most  deadly  of  all  snakes);  with  de- 
lightful nonchalance  he  stepped  on  its  head,  and  then  held 
it  up  for  me  to  put  my  knife  through  its  brain  and  neck. 
I  slipped  it  into  my  saddle  pocket,  where  its  blood  stained 
the  pigskin  cover  of  the  little  pocket  Nibelungenlied  which 
that  day  I  happened  to  carry.  Immediately  afterward 
there  was  a  fresh  alarm  from  our  friends  the  three  rhinos; 
dismounting,  and  crouching  down,  we  caught  the  loom  of 


HUNTING   IN  THE   SOTIK 


225 


their  bulky  bodies  against  the  horizon;  but  a  shot  in  the 
ground  seemed  to  make  them  hesitate,  and  they  finally  con- 
cluded not  to  charge.  So,  with  the  lion  skin  swinging  be- 
hind between  two  porters,  a  moribund  pufif  adder  in  my 
saddle  pocket,  and  three  rhinos  threatening  us  in  the  dark- 


A  giant  candelabra  euphorbia  by  our  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edniu7id  Heller 


ness  to  one  side,  we  marched  campward  through  the  African 
night. 

Next  day  we  shifted  camp  to  a  rush-fringed  pool  by  a 
grove  of  tall,  flat-topped  acacias  at  the  foot  of  a  range  of 
low,  steep  mountains.  Before  us  the  plain  stretched,  and 
in  front  of  our  tents  it  was  dotted  by  huge  candelabra 
euphorbias.  I  shot  a  buck  for  the  table  just  as  we  pitched 
camp.  There  were  Masai  kraals  and  cattle  herds  near  by, 
and  tall  warriors,  pleasant  and  friendly,  strolled  among 
our  tents,  their  huge  razor-edged  spears  tipped  with  furry 
caps  to  protect  the  points.  Kermit  was  off  all  day  with 
Tarlton,  and  killed  a  magnificent  lioness.     In  the  morning, 


226  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

on  some  high  hills,  he  obtained  a  good  impalla  ram,  after 
persevering  hours  of  climbing  and  running — for  only  one 
of  the  gun-bearers  and  none  of  the  whites  could  keep  up 
with  him  on  foot  when  he  went  hard.  In  the  afternoon 
at  four  he  and  Tarlton  saw  the  lioness.  She  was  followed 
by  three  three-parts  grown  young  lions,  doubtless  her  cubs, 
and,  without  any  concealment^  was  walking  across  the 
open  plain  toward  a  pool  by  which  lay  the  body  of  a  wilde- 
beest bull  she  had  killed  the  preceding  night.  The  smaller 
lions  saw  the  hunters  and  shrank  back,  but  the  old  lioness 
never  noticed  them  until  they  were  within  a  hundred  and 
fxfty  yards.  Then  she  ran  back,  but  Kermit  crumpled  her 
up  with  his  first  bullet.  He  then  put  another  bullet  into  her, 
and  as  she  seemed  disabled  walked  up  within  fifty  yards, 
and  took  some  photos.  By  this  time  she  was  recovering, 
and^  switching  her  tail,  she  gathered  her  hind  quarters 
under  her  for  a  charge;  but  he  stopped  her  with  another 
bullet  and  killed  her  outright  with  a  fourth. 

We  heard  that  Mearns  and  I^oring^  whom  we  had  left 
ten  days  before^  had  also  killed  a  lioness.  A  Masai  brought 
in  word  to  them  that  he  had  marked  her  down  taking  her 
noonday  rest  near  a  kongoni  she  had  killed;  and  they  rode 
out^  and  Loring  shot  her.  She  charged  him  savagely;  he 
shot  her  straight  through  the  heart,  and  she  fell  literally 
at  his  feet.  The  three  naturalists  were  all  good  shots,  and 
were  used  to  all  the  mishaps  and  adventures  of  life  in  the 
wilderness.  Not  only  would  it  have  been  Indeed  difficult 
to  find  three  better  men  for  their  particular  work — Heller's 
work,  for  instance,  with  Cunlnghame's  help,  gave  the  chief 
point  to  our  big-game  shooting — but  it  would  have  been 
equally  difficult  to  find  three  better  men  for  any  emer- 
gency. I  could  not  speak  too  highly  of  them;  nor  Indeed 
of  our  two  other  companions,  Cuninghame  and  Tarlton, 
whose  mastery  of  their  own  field  was  as  noteworthy  as  the 
pre-eminence  of  the  naturalists  in  their  field. 

The  following  morning  the  headmen  asked  that  we 
get  the  porters  some  meat;    Tarlton,  Kermit,  and  I  sallied 


The  wounded  lioness  ready  to  charge 
From  a  photograph  by  Kcrmii  Roosevelt 


The  wounded  h'oness 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


228  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

forth  accordingly.  The  country  was  very  dry,  and  the 
game  in  our  immediate  neighborhood  was  not  plentiful 
and  was  rather  shy.  I  killed  three  kongoni  out  of  a  herd, 
at  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  and  ninety 
paces;  one  topi  at  three  hundred  and  thirty  paces,  and  a 
Roberts'  gazelle  at  two  hundred  and  seventy.  Meanwhile 
the  other  two  had  killed  a  kongoni  and  five  of  the  big  ga- 
zelles; wherever  possible  the  game  being  hallalled  in  ortho- 
dox fashion  by  the  Mahometans  among  our  attendants, 
so  as  to  fit  it  for  use  by  their  coreligionists  among  the  por- 
ters. Then  we  saw  some  giraffes,  and  galloped  them  to 
see  if  there  was  a  really  big  bull  in  the  lot.  They  had  a 
long  start,  but  Kermit  and  Tarlton  overtook  them  after 
a  couple  of  miles,  while  I  pounded  along  in  the  rear.  How- 
ever there  was  no  really  good  bull,  Kermit  and  Tarlton 
pulled  up,  and  we  jogged  along  toward  the  koppies  where 
two  days  before  I  had  shot  the  lioness.  I  killed  a  big  bus- 
tard, a  very  handsome,  striking-looking  bird,  larger  than  a 
turkey,  by  a  rather  good  shot  at  two  hundred  and  thirty 
yards. 

It  was  now  mid-day,  and  the  heat  waves  quivered  above 
the  brown  plain.  The  mirage  hung  in  the  middle  distance, 
and  beyond  it  the  bold  hills  rose  like  mountains  from  a 
lake.  In  mid-afternoon  we  stopped  at  a  little  pool,  to  give 
the  men  and  horses  water;  and  here  Kermit's  horse  sud- 
denly went  dead  lame,  and  we  started  it  back  to  camp  with 
a  couple  of  men,  while  Kermit  went  forward  with  us  on 
foot,  as  we  rode  round  the  base  of  the  first  koppies.  After 
we  had  gone  a  mile  loud  shouts  called  our  attention  to  one 
of  the  men  who  had  left  with  the  lame  horse.  He  was 
running  back  to  tell  us  that  they  had  just  seen  a  big  maned 
lion  walking  along  in  the  open  plain  toward  the  body  of 
a  zebra  he  had  killed  the  night  before.  Immediately  Tarl- 
ton and  I  galloped  in  the  direction  indicated,  while  the 
heart-broken  Kermit  ran  after  us  on  foot,  so  as  not  to  miss 
the  fun;  the  gun-bearers  and  saises  stringing  out  behind 
him.     In  a  few  minutes  Tarlton  pointed  out  the  lion,  a 


t^'. 


^m^--^ 


'^^^^Sfc-iwriiinii 


HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK  231 

splendid  old  fellow,  a  heavy  male  with  a  yellow-and-black 
mane;  and  after  him  we  went.  There  was  no  need  to  go 
fast;  he  was  too  burly  and  too  savage  to  run  hard,  and  we 
were  anxious  that  our  hands  should  be  reasonably  steady 
when  we  shot;  all  told,  the  horses,  galloping  and  canter- 
ing, did  not  take  us  two  miles. 

The  lion  stopped  and  lay  down  behind  a  bush;  jumping 
off  I  took  a  shot  at  him  at  two  hundred  yards,  but  only 
wounded  him  slightly  in  one  paw;  and  after  a  moment's 
sullen  hesitation  off  he  went,  lashing  his  tail.  We  mounted 
our  horses  and  went  after  him;  Tarlton  lost  sight  of  him, 
but  I  marked  him  lying  down  behind  a  low  grassy  ant-hill. 
Again  we  dismounted  at  a  distance  of  two  hundred  yards; 
Tarlton  telling  me  that  now  he  was  sure  to  charge.  In  all 
East  Africa  there  is  no  man,  not  even  Cuninghame  him- 
self, whom  I  would  rather  have  by  me  than  Tarlton,  if  in 
difficulties  with  a  charging  lion;  on  this  occasion,  however, 
I  am  glad  to  say  that  his  rifle  was  badly  sighted,  and  shot 
altogether  too  low. 

Again  I  knelt  and  fired;  but  the  mass  of  hair  on  the  lion 
made  me  think  he  was  nearer  than  he  was^  and  I  undershot, 
inflicting  a  flesh  wound  that  was  neither  crippling  nor 
fatal.  He  was  already  grunting  savagely  and  tossing  his 
tail  erect,  with  his  head  held  low;  and  at  the  shot  the  great 
sinewy  beast  came  toward  us  with  the  speed  of  a  greyhound. 
Tarlton  then,  very  properly,  fired,  for  lion  hunting  is  no 
child's  play,  and  it  is  not  good  to  run  risks.  Ordinarily  it  is 
a  very  mean  thing  to  experience  joy  at  a  friend's  miss; 
but  this  was  not  an  ordinary  case,  and  I  felt  keen  delight 
when  the  bullet  from  the  badly  sighted  rifle  missed,  strik- 
ing the  ground  many  yards  short.  I  was  sighting  carefully, 
from  my  knee,  and  I  knew  I  had  the  lion  all  right ;  for 
though  he  galloped  at  a  great  pace,  he  came  on  steadily — 
ears  laid  back,  and  uttering  terrific  coughing  grunts — and 
there  was  now  no  question  of  making  allowance  for  dis- 
tance, nor,  as  he  was  out  in  the  open,  for  the  fact  that  he 
had  not  before  been  distinctly  visible.     The  bead  of  my 


232  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

foresight  was  exactly  on  the  centre  of  his  chest  as  I  pressed 
the  trigger,  and  the  bullet  went  as  true  as  if  the  place  had 
been  plotted  with  dividers.  The  blow  brought  him  up  all 
standing,  and  he  fell  forward  on  his  head.  The  soft-nosed 
Winchester  bullet  had  gone  straight  through  the  chest 
cavity,  smashing  the  lungs  and  the  big  blood-vessels  of  the 
heart.  Painfully  he  recovered  his  feet,  and  tried  to  come 
on,  his  ferocious  courage  holding  out  to  the  last;  but  he 
staggered,  and  turned  from  side  to  side,  unable  to  stand 
firmly,  still  less  to  advance  at  a  faster  pace  than  a  walk. 
He  had  not  ten  seconds  to  live;  but  it  is  a  sound  principle 
to  take  no  chances  with  lions.  Tarlton  hit  him  with  his 
second  bullet,  probably  in  the  shoulder;  and  with  my  next 
shot  I  broke  his  neck.  I  had  stopped  him  when  he  was 
still  a  hundred  yards  away;  and  certainly  no  finer  sight 
could  be  imagined  than  that  of  this  great  maned  lion  as  he 
charged.  Kermit  gleefully  joined  us  as  we  walked  up  to 
the  body;  only  one  of  our  followers  had  been  able  to  keep 
up  with  him  on  his  two-miles  run.  He  had  had  a  fine  view 
of  the  charge,  from  one  side,  as  he  ran  up,  still  three  hun- 
dred yards  distant;  he  could  see  all  the  muscles  play  as  the 
lion  galloped  in,  and  then  everything  relax  as  he  fell  to  the 
shock  of  my  bullet. 

The  lion  was  a  big  old  male,  still  in  his  prime.  Between 
uprights  his  length  was  nine  feet  four  inches,  and  his  weight 
four  hundred  and  ten  pounds,  for  he  was  not  fat.  We 
skinned  him  and  started  for  camp,  which  we  reached  after 
dark.  There  was  a  thunder-storm  in  the  south-west,  and 
in  the  red  sunset  that  burned  behind  us  the  rain  clouds 
turned  to  many  gorgeous  hues.  Then  daylight  failed,  the 
clouds  cleared,  and,  as  we  made  our  way  across  the  form- 
less plain,  the  half  moon  hung  high  overhead,  strange  stars 
shone  in  the  brilliant  heavens,  and  the  Southern  Cross  lay 
radiant  above  the  sky-line. 

Our  next  camp  was  pitched  on  a  stony  plain,  by  a 
winding  stream-bed  still  containing  an  occasional  rush- 
fringed  pool  of  muddy  water,  fouled  by  the  herds  and  flocks 


HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK 


233 


of  the  numerous  Masai.  Game  was  plemiful  around  this 
camp.  We  killed  what  we  needed  of  the  common  kinds, 
and  in  addition  each  of  us  killed  a  big  rhino.     The  two 


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^^B^^^HH^^^^^^Hk^h*'  '■--i"'"'yMniffi''"'fr^ 

hHIH 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  Tarlton,  and  the  big  lion  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermii  Roosevelt 

rhinos  were  almost  exactly  alike,  and  their  horns  were  of  the 
so-called  "Keitloa"  type;  the  fore  horn  twenty-two  inches 
long,  the  rear  over  seventeen.  The  day  I  killed  mine  I  used 
all  three  of  my  rifles.  We  all  went  out  together,  as  Kermit 
was  desirous  of  taking  photos  of  my  rhino,  if  I  shot  one; 


234  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

he  had  not  been  able  to  get  good  ones  of  his  on  the  previous 
day.  We  also  took  the  small  ox  wagon,  so  as  to  bring  into 
camp  bodily  the  rhino — if  we  got  it — and  one  or  two  zebras, 
of  which  we  wanted  the  flesh  for  the  safari,  the  skeletons 
for  the  museum.  The  night  had  been  cool,  but  the  day 
was  sunny  and  hot.  At  first  we  rode  through  a  broad  val- 
ley, bounded  by  high,  scrub-covered  hills.  The  banks 
of  the  dry  stream  were  fringed  with  deep  green  acacias,  and 
here  and  there  in  relief  against  their  dark  foliage  flamed 
the  orange-red  flowers  of  the  tall  aloe  clumps.  With  the 
Springfield  I  shot  a  steinbuck  and  a  lesser  bustard.  Then 
we  came  out  on  the  vast  rolling  brown  plains.  With  the 
Winchester  I  shot  two  zebra  stallions,  missing  each  stand- 
ing, at  long  range,  and  then  killing  them  as  they  ran;  one 
after  a  two-miles  hard  gallop,  on  my  brown  pony,  which 
had  a  good  turn  of  speed.  I  killed  a  third  zebra  stallion 
with  my  Springfield,  again  missing  it  standing  and  killing 
it  running.  In  mid-afternoon  we  spied  our  rhino,  and 
getting  near  saw  that  it  had  good  horns.  It  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  absolutely  bare  plain,  and  we  walked  straight 
up  to  the  dull-sighted,  dull-witted  beast;  Kermit  with  his 
camera,  I  with  the  Holland  double-barrel.  The  tick-birds 
warned  it,  but  it  did  not  make  us  out  until  we  were  well 
within  a  hundred  yards,  when  it  trotted  toward  us,  head 
and  tail  up.  At  sixty  yards  I  put  the  heavy  bullet  straight 
into  its  chest,  and  knocked  it  flat  with  the  blow;  as  it  tried 
to  struggle  to  its  feet  I  again  knocked  it  flat,  with  the  left- 
hand  barrel;  but  it  needed  two  more  bullets  before  it  died, 
screaming  like  an  engine  whistle.  Before  I  fired  my  last 
shot  I  had  walked  up  directly  beside  the  rhino;  and  just 
then  Tarlton  pointed  me  out  a  greater  bustard,  stalking 
along  with  unmoved  composure  at  a  distance  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards;  I  took  the  Springfield,  and  kneeling 
down  beside  the  rhino's  hind  quarters  I  knocked  over  the 
bustard,  and  then  killed  the  rhino.  We  rode  into  camp  by 
moonlight.  Both  these  rhinos  had  their  stomachs  filled 
with. the  closely  chewed  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  short  brush 


HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK 


235 


mixed  with  grass — rather  thick-stemmed  grass — and  in  one 
case  with  the  pulpy,  spiny  leaves  of  a  low,  ground-creeping 
euphorbia. 

At  this  camp  we  killed  five  poisonous  snakes:  a  light- 
colored  tree  snake,  two  puff  adders,  and  two  seven-foot 
cobras.  One  of  the  latter  three  times  "spat"  or  ejected  its 
poison  at  us^  the  poison  coming  out  from  the  fangs  lii^e  white 


A  rhino  "coining  on  " 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerniit  Roosevelt 


films  or  threads,  to  a  distance  of  several  feet.  A  few  years 
ago  the  singular  power  of  this  snake,  and  perhaps  of  certain 
other  African  species,  thus  to  eject  the  poison  at  the  face  of 
an  assailant  was  denied  by  scientists;  but  It  is  now  well 
known.  Selous  had  already  told  me  of  an  instance  which 
came  under  his  own  observation;  and  Tarlton  had  once  been 
struck  in  the  eyes  and  for  the  moment  nearly  blinded  by  the 
poison.  He  found  that  to  wash  the  eyes  with  milk  was  of 
much  relief.  On  the  bigger  puff  adder,  some  four  feet  long, 
were  a  dozen  ticks,  some  swollen  to  the  size  of  cherries ;   ap- 


23f)  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAIL? 

parently  they  were  disregarded  by  their  sluggish  and  deadly 
host.  Heller  trapped  some  jackals,  of  two  species;  and  two 
striped  hyenas^  the  first  we  had  seen;  apparently  more  timid 
and  less  noisy  beasts  than  their  bigger  spotted  brothers. 

One  day  Kermit  had  our  first  characteristic  experience 
with  a  honey  bird;  a  smallish  bird,  with  its  beak  like  a  gros- 
beak's and  its  toes  like  a  woodpecker's,  whose  extraordinary 
habits  as  a  honey-guide  are  known  to  all  the  natives  of  Africa 
throughout  its  range.  Kermit  had  killed  an  eland  bull,  and 
while  he  was  resting^  his  gun-bearers  drew  his  attention  to 
the  calling  of  the  honey  bird  in  a  tree  near  by.  He  got  up, 
and  as  he  approached  the  bird,  it  flew  to  another  tree  in  front 
and  again  began  its  twitter.  This  was  repeated  again  and 
again  as  Kermit  walked  after  it.  Finally  the  bird  darted 
round  behind  his  followers,  in  the  direction  from  which  they 
had  come;  and  for  a  moment  they  thought  it  had  played  them 
false.  But  immediately  afterward  they  saw  that  it  had  merely 
overshot  its  mark,  and  had  now  flown  back  a  few  rods  to 
the  honey-tree,  round  which  it  was  flitting,  occasionally 
twittering.  When  they  came  toward  the  tree  it  perched 
silent  and  motionless  in  another,  and  thus  continued  while 
they  took  some  honey — a  risky  business,  as  the  bees  were 
vicious.  They  did  not  observe  what  the  bird  then  did; 
but  Cuninghame  told  me  that  in  one  instance  where  a 
honey  bird  led  him  to  honey  he  carefully  watched  it  and 
saw  it  picking  up  either  bits  of  honey  and  comb,  or  else, 
more  probably,  the  bee  grubs  out  of  the  comb,  he  could 
not  be  certain  which. 

To  my  mind  no  more  interesting  incident  occurred  at 
this  camp. 


CHAPTER   IX 


TO    LAKE   NAIVASHA 


From  this  camp  we  turned   north  toward   Lake  Nai- 
vasha. 

The  Sotik  country  through  which  we  had  hunted  was 
sorely  stricken  by  drought.  The  grass  was  short  and  with- 
ered and  most  of  the  water- 
holes  were  drying  up,  while 
both  the  game  and  the 
flocks  and  herds  of  the  no- 
mad Masai  gathered  round 
the  watercourses  in  which 
there  were  still  occasional 
muddy  pools,  and  grazed 
their  neighborhood  bare  of 
pasturage.  It  was  an  un- 
ceasing pleasure  to  watch 
the  ways  of  the  game  and 
to  study  their  varying  hab- 
its. Where  there  was  a 
river  from  which  to  drink, 
or  where  there  were  many 
pools,  the  different  kinds  of 
buck,  and  the  zebra,  often 
showed  comparatively  little 
timidity  about  drinking,  and 
came  boldly  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  sometimes  in 
broad  daylight,  sometimes 
in  darkness ;  although  even  under  those  conditions  they 
were  very  cautious  if  there  was  cover  at  the  drinking- 
place.      But   where  the   pools  were    few    they   never    ap- 

237 


Masai  guides  on  Sotik  trip 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


£38  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

preached  one  without  feeling  panic  dread  of  their  great 
enemy  the  hon,  who,  they  knew  well^  might  be  lurking 
around  their  drinking-place.  At  such  a  pool  I  once  saw 
a  herd  of  zebras  come  to  water  at  nightfall.  They  stood 
motionless  some  distance  off;  then  they  slowly  approached, 
and  twice  on  false  alarms  wheeled  and  fled  at  speed;  at  last 
the  leaders  ventured  to  the  brink  of  the  pool  and  at  once  the 
whole  herd  came  jostling  and  crowding  in  behind  them  the 
water  gurgling  down  their  thirsty  throats;  and  immediately 
afterward  off^  they  went  at  a  gallop,  stopping  to  graze  some 
hundreds  of  yards  away.  The  ceaseless  dread  of  the  lion 
felt  by  all  but  the  heaviest  game  is  amply  justified  by  his 
ravages  among  them.  They  are  always  in  peril  from  him 
at  the  drinking-places;  yet  in  my  experience  I  found  that 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases  they  were  killed  while  feeding 
or  resting  far  from  water,  the  lion  getting  them  far  more 
often  by  stalking  than  by  lying  in  wait.  A  lion  will  eat  a 
zebra  (beginning  at  the  hind  quarters,  by  the  way,  and  some- 
times having,  and  sometimes  not  having,  previously  disem- 
bowelled the  animal)  or  one  of  the  bigger  buck  at  least  once 
a  week — perhaps  once  every  five  days.  The  dozen  lions  we 
had  killed  would  probably,  if  left  alive,  have  accounted  for 
seven  or  eight  hundred  buck,  pig,  and  zebra  within  the  next 
year.  Our  hunting  was  a  net  advantage  to  the  harmless 
game. 

The  zebras  were  the  noisiest  of  the  game.  After  them 
came  the  wildebeest,  which  often  uttered  their  queer  grunt; 
sometimes  a  herd  would  stand  and  grunt  at  me  for  some 
minutes  as  I  passed,  a  few  hundred  yards  distant.  The 
topi  uttered  only  a  kind  of  sneeze,  and  the  hartebeest  a 
somewhat  similar  sound.  The  so-called  Roberts'  gazelle 
was  merely  the  Grant's  gazelle  of  the  Athi,  with  the  lyrate 
shape  of  the  horns  tending  to  be  carried  to  an  extreme 
of  spread  and  backward  bend.  The  tommy  bucks  carried 
good  horns;  the  horns  of  the  does  were  usually  aborted, 
and  were  never  more  than  four  or  five  inches  long.  The 
most  notable  feature  about  the  tommies  was  the  incessant 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA  «S0 

switching  of  their  tails,  as  if  jerked  by  electricity.  In  the 
Sotik  the  topis  all  seemed  to  have  calves  of  about  the 
same  age,  as  if  born  from  four  to  six  months  earlier;  the 
young  of  the  other  game  were  of  every  age.  The  males  of 
all  the  antelope  fought  much  among  themselves.  The 
gazelle  bucks  of  both  species  would  face  one  another,  their 
heads  between  the  forelegs  and  the  horns  level  with  the 
ground,  and  each  would  punch  his  opponent  until  the  hair 
flew. 

Watching  the  game,  one  was  struck  by  the  intensity  and 
the  evanescence  of  their  emotions.  Civilized  man  now 
usually  passes  his  life  under  conditions  which  eliminate 
the  intensity  of  terror  felt  by  his  ancestors  when  death  by 
violence  was  their  normal  end,  and  threatened  them  during 
every  hour  of  the  day  and  night.  It  is  only  in  nightmares 
that  the  average  dweller  in  civilized  countries  now  under- 
goes the  hideous  horror  which  was  the  regular  and  frequent 
portion  of  his  ages-vanished  forefathers,  and  which  is  still 
an  ever^^-day  incident  in  the  lives  of  most  wild  creatures. 
But  the  dread  is  short-lived,  and  its  horror  vanishes  with 
instantaneous  rapidity.  In  these  wilds  the  game  dreaded 
the  lion  and  the  other  flesh-eating  beasts  rather  than  man. 
We  saw  innumerable  kills  of  all  the  buck,  and  of  zebra, 
the  neck  being  usually  dislocated,  and  it  being  evident  that 
none  of  the  lion's  victims,  not  even  the  truculent  wilde- 
beest or  huge  eland,  had  been  able  to  make  any  fight  against 
him.  The  game  is  ever  on  the  alert  against  this  greatest  of 
foes,  and  every  herd,  almost  every  individual,  is  in  immi- 
nent and  deadly  peril  every  few  days  or  nights,  and  of  course 
suffers  in  addition  from  countless  false  alarms.  But  no 
sooner  is  the  danger  over  than  the  animals  resume  their 
feeding,  or  love  making,  or  their  fighting  among  themselves. 
Two  bucks  will  do  battle  the  minute  the  herd  has  stopped 
running  from  the  foe  that  has  seized  one  of  its  number,  and 
a  buck  will  cover  a  doe  in  the  brief  interval  between  the 
first  and  the  second  alarm,  from  hunter  or  lion.  Zebra 
will  make  much  noise  when  one  of  their  number  has  been 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


killed;    but  their  fright  has  vanished  when  once  they  be- 
gin their  barking  calls. 

Death  by  violence,  death  by  cold,  death  by  starvation — 
these  are  the  normal  endings  of  the  stately  and  beautiful 
creatures  of  the  wilderness.  The  sentimentalists  who  prattle 
about  the  peaceful  life  of  nature  do  not  realize  its  utter 


The  rhino  stood  looking  at  us  with  his  big  ears  cocked  forward 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevdl 

mercilessness;  although  all  they  would  have  to  do  would 
be  to  look  at  the  birds  in  the  winter  woods,  or  even  at  the 
insects  on  a  cold  morning  or  cold  evening.  Life  is  hard 
and  cruel  for  all  the  lower  creatures,  and  for  man  also 
in  what  the  sentimentalists  call  a  "state  of  nature."  The 
savage  of  to-day  shows  us  what  the  fancied  age  of  gold  of 
our  ancestors  was  really  like;-  it  was  an  age  when  hunger, 
cold,  violence,  and  iron  cruelty  were  the  ordinary  accom- 
paniments of  life.  If  Matthew  Arnold,  when  he  expressed 
the  wish  to  know  the  thoughts  of  Earth's  ''vigorous,  primi- 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA 


241 


tive"  tribes  of  the  past,  had  really  desired  an  answer  to  his 
question,  he  would  have  done  well  to  visit  the  homes  of  the 
existing  representatives  of  his  ''vigorous,  primitive"  ances- 
torSj  and  to  watch  them  feasting  on  blood  and  guts;  while 
as  for  the  ''pellucid  and  pure"  feelings  of  his  imaginary 
primitive  maiden,  they  were  those  of  any  meek,  cowlike 
creature  who  accepted  marriage  by  purchase 
or  of  convenience,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

It  was  to  me  a  perpetual  source  of  won- 
derment to  notice  the  difference  in  the  be- 
havior of  different  individuals  of  the  same 
species,  and  in 
the  behavior  of 
the  same  indi- 
vidual at  differ- 
ent times ;  as,  for 
example,  in  the 
matter  of  wari- 
ness,  of  the 
times  for  going 
to  water,  of  the 
times  for  resting, 
and,  as  regards 
dangerous  game, 
in  the  matter  of 

ferocity.  Their  very  looks  changed.  At  one  moment  the 
sun  would  turn  the  zebras  of  a  mixed  herd  white,  and 
the  hartebeest  straw-colored,  so  that  the  former  could  be 
seen  much  farther  off  than  the  latter;  and  again  the  con- 
ditions would  be  reversed  when  under  the  light  the  zebras 
would  show  up  gray,  and  the  hartebeest  as  red  as  foxes. 

I  had  now  killed  almost  all  the  specimens  of  the  com- 
mon game  that  the  museum  needed.  However,  we  kept 
the  skin  or  skeleton  of  whatever  we  shot  for  meat.  Now 
and  then,  after  a  good  stalk,  I  would  get  a  boar  with 
unusually  fine  tusks,  a  big  gazelle  with  unusually  long 
and  graceful  horns,  or  a  fine  old  wildebeest  bull,  its  horns 


Rhino  shot  from  Salt-marsh  camp,  of  the  Keitloa 

type,  with  rear  horn  longer  than  front  horn 

From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


16 


242  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

thick  and  battered,  its  knees  bare  and  calloused  from  its 
habit  of  going  down  on  them  when  fighting  or  threatening 
fight. 

On  our  march  northward,  we  first  made  a  long  day's 
journey  to  what  was  called  a  salt  marsh.  An  hour  or  two 
after  starting  we  had  a  characteristic  experience  with  a 
rhino.  It  was  a  bull,  with  poor  horns,  standing  in  a  plain 
which  was  dotted  by  a  few  straggling  thorn-trees  and  wild 
olives.  The  safari's  course  would  have  taken  it  to  windward 
of  the  rhino,  which  then  might  have  charged  in  sheer  irri- 
table bewilderment;  so  we  turned  off  at  right  angles.  The 
long  line  of  porters  passed  him  two  hundred  yards  away, 
while  we  gun  men  stood  between  with  our  rifles  ready; 
except  Kermit,  who  was  busy  taking  photos.  The  rhino 
saw  us,  but  apparently  indistinctly.  He  made  little  dashes 
to  and  fro,  and  finally  stood  looking  at  us,  with  his  big 
ears  cocked  forward;  but  he  did  nothing  more,  and  we  left 
him  standing,  plunged  in  meditation — probably  it  would 
be  more  accurate  to  say,  thinking  of  absolutely  nothing, 
as  if  he  had  been  a  huge  turtle.  After  leaving  him  we 
also  passed  by  files  of  zebra  and  topi  who  gazed  at  us, 
intent  and  curious,  within  two  hundred  yards,  until  we.  had 
gone  by  and  the  danger  was  over;  whereupon  they  fled 
in  fright. 

The  so-called  salt  marsh  consisted  of  a  dry  watercourse, 
with  here  and  there  a  deep  muddy  pool.  The  ground 
was  impregnated  with  some  saline  substance,  and  the 
game  licked  it,  as  well  as  coming  to  water.  Our  camp 
was  near  two  reedy  pools,  in  which  there  were  big  yellow- 
billed  ducks,  while  queer  brown  herons,  the  hammerhead, 
had  built  big  nests  of  sticks  in  the  tall  acacias.  Bush  cuckoos 
gurgled  in  the  underbrush  by  night  and  day.  Brilliant  roll- 
ers flitted  through  the  trees.  There  was  much  sweet  bird 
music  in  the  morning.  Funny  little  elephant  shrews  with 
long  snouts,  and  pretty  zebra  mice,  evidently  of  diurnal 
habit,  scampered  among  the  bushes  or  scuttled  into  their 
burrows.     Tiny  dikdiks,  antelopes  no   bigger  than  hares. 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA  243 

with  swollen  muzzles,  and  th-^ir  little  horns  half  hidden 
by  tufts  of  hair,  ran  like  rabbits  through  the  grass;  the  fe- 
males were  at  least  as  large  as  the  males.  Another  seven- 
foot  cobra  was  killed.  There  were  brilliant  masses  of 
the  red  aloe  flowers,  and  of  yellow  -  blossomed  vines. 
Around  the  pools  the  ground  was  bare,  and  the  game 
trails  leading  to  the  water  were  deeply  rutted  by  the  hoofs 
of  the  wild  creatures  that  had  travelled  them  for  countless 
generations. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp,  Cuninghame  and 
I  hunted  on  the  plains.  Before  noon  we  made  out  with  our 
glasses  two  rhino  lying  down,  a  mile  off.  As  usual  with 
these  sluggish  creatures  we  made  our  preparations  in 
leisurely  style,  and  with  scant  regard  to  the  animal  itself. 
Moreover  we  did  not  intend  to  kill  any  rhino  unless  its 
horns  were  out  of  the  common.  I  first  stalked  and  shot  a 
buck  Roberts'  gazelle  with  a  good  head.  Then  we  off-sad- 
dled the  horses  and  sat  down  to  lunch  under  a  huge  thorn- 
tree,  which  stood  by  itself,  lonely  and  beautiful,  and  offered 
a  shelter  from  the  blazing  sun.  The  game  was  grazing 
on  every  side;  and  I  kept  thinking  of  all  the  life  of  the 
wilderness,  and  of  its  many  tragedies,  which  the  great  tree 
must  have  witnessed  during  the  centuries  since  it  was  a 
seedhng. 

Lunch  over,  I  looked  to  the  loading  of  the  heavy  rifle, 
and  we  started  toward  the  rhinos,  well  to  leeward.  But 
the  wind  shifted  every  which  way;  and  suddenly  my  gun- 
bearers  called  my  attention  to  the  rhinos,  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  off,  saying,  *'He  charging,  he  charging."  Sure  enough, 
they  had  caught  our  wind,  and  were  rushing  toward  us.  I 
jumped  off  the  horse  and  studied  the  oncoming  beasts 
through  my  field-glass;  but  head  on  it  was  hard  to  tell 
about  the  horns.  However,  the  wind  shifted  again,  and 
when  two  hundred  yards  off  they  lost  our  scent,  and  turned 
to  one  side,  tails  in  the  air,  heads  tossing,  evidently  much 
wrought  up.  They  were  a  large  cow  and  a  young  heifer, 
nearly  two-thirds  grown.    As  they  trotted  sideways  I  could 


244  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

see  the  cow's  horns,  and  her  doom  was  sealed;  for  they  were 
of  good  length,  and  the  hind  one  (it  proved  to  be  two  feet 
long)  was  slightly  longer  than  the  stouter  front  one;  it  was 
a  specimen  which  the  museum  needed. 

So  after  them  we  trudged  over  the  brown  plain.  But 
they  were  uneasy,  and  kept  trotting  and  walking.  They 
never  saw  us  with  their  dull  eyes;  but  a  herd  of  wildebeest 
galloping  by  renewed  their  alarm;  it  was  curious  to  see 
them  sweeping  the  ground  with  their  long,  ugly  heads,  en- 
deavoring to  catch  the  scent.  A  mile's  rapid  walk  brought 
us  within  two  hundred  yards,  and  we  dared  not  risk  the 
effort  for  a  closer  approach  lest  they  should  break  and  run. 
The  cow  turned  broadside  to,  and  I  hit  her  behind  the 
shoulder;  but  I  was  not  familiar  with  the  heavy  Holland 
rifle  at  that  range,  and  my  bullet  went  rather  too  low.  I 
think  the  wound  would  eventually  have  proved  fatal;  but 
both  beasts  went  off  at  a  gallop,  the  cow  now  and  then 
turning  from  side  to  side  in  high  dudgeon,  trying  to  catch 
the  wind  of  her  foe.  We  mounted  our  horses,  and  after  a 
couple  of  miles'  canter  overhauled  our  quarry.  Cuning- 
hame  took  me  well  to  leeward,  and  ahead,  of  the  rhinos, 
which  never  saw  us;  and  then  we  walked  to  within  a  hun- 
dred yards,  and  I  killed  the  cow.  But  we  were  now  much 
puzzled  by  the  young  one,  which  refused  to  leave;  we  did 
not  wish  to  kill  it,  for  it  was  big  enough  to  shift  for  itself;  but 
it  was  also  big  enough  to  kill  either  of  us.  We  drew  back, 
hoping  it  would  go  away;  but  it  did  not.  So  when  the  gun- 
bearers  arrived  we  advanced  and  tried  to  frighten  it;  but 
this  plan  also  failed.  It  threatened  to  charge,  but  could 
not  quite  make  up  its  mind.  Watching  my  chance  I  then 
creased  its  stern  with  a  bullet  from  the  little  Springfield, 
and  after  some  wild  circular  galloping  it  finally  decided 
to  leave. 

Kermit,  about  this  time,  killed  a  heavy  boar  from  horse- 
back after  a  three-miles  run.  The  boar  charged  twice,  caus- 
ing the  horse  to  buck  and  shy.  Finally,  just  as  he  was 
going  into  his  burrow  backward,  Kermit  raced  by  and  shot: 


TO   LAKE   NAIVASHA  245 

him,  firing  his  rifle  from  the  saddle  after  the  manner  of  the 
old-time  Western  buffalo  runners. 

We  now  rejoined  Mearns  and  Loring  on  the  banks  of 
the  Guaso  Nyero.  They  had  collected  hundreds  of  birds 
and  small  mammals,  among  them  several  new  species.  We 
had  already  heard  that  a  Mr.  Williams,  whom  we  had  met 
at  McMillan's  ranch,  had  been  rather  badly  mauled  by  a 
lion,  which  he  had  mortally  wounded,  but  which  managed 
to  charge  home.  Now  we  found  that  Dr.  Mearns  had  been 
quite  busily  engaged  in  attending  to  cases  of  men  who 
were  hurt  by  lions.  Loring  nearly  got  in  the  category.  He 
killed  his  lioness  with  a  light  automatic  rifle,  utterly  unfit 
for  use  against  African  game.  Though  he  actually  put  a 
bullet  right  through  the  beast's  heart,  the  shock  from  the 
blow  was  so  slight  that  she  was  not  stopped  even  for  a  sec- 
ond; he  hit  her  four  times  in  all,  each  shot  being  mortal — 
for  he  was  an  excellent  marksman, — and  she  died  nearly 
at  his  feet,  her  charge  carrying  her  several  yards  by  him. 
Mearns  had  galloped  into  a  herd  of  wildebeest  and  killed 
the  big  bull  of  the  herd,  after  first  running  clean  through 
a  mob  of  zebras,  which,  as  he  passed,  skinned  their  long 
yellow  teeth  threateningly  at  him,  but  made  no  attempt 
actually  to  attack  him. 

A  settler  had  come  down  to  trade  with  the  Masai  during 
our  absence.  He  ran  into  a  large  party  of  lions,  killed  two, 
and  wounded  a  lioness  which  escaped  after  mauling  one 
of  his  gun-bearers.  The  gun-bearer  rode  into  camp,  and 
the  Doctor  treated  his  wounds.  Next  day  Mearns  was 
summoned  to  a  Masai  kraal  sixteen  miles  off  to  treat  the 
wounds  of  two  of  the  Masai;  it  appeared  that  a  body  of 
them  had  followed  and  killed  the  wounded  lioness,  but  that 
two  of  their  number  had  been  much  maltreated  in  the  fight. 
One,  especially,  had  been  fearfully  bitten,  the  lioness  hav- 
ing pulled  the  flesh  loose  from  the  bones  with  her  fixed 
teeth.  The  Doctor  attended  to  all  three  cases.  The  gun- 
bearer  recovered;  both  the  Masai  died,  although  the  Doc- 
tor did  all  in  his  power  for  the  two  gallant  fellows.     Their 


246  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

deaths  did  not  hinder  the  Masai  from  sending  to  him  all 
kinds  of  cases  in  which  men  or  boys  had  met  with  acci- 
dents. He  attended  to  them  all,  and  gained  a  high  reputa- 
tion with  the  tribe;  when  the  case  was  serious  the  patient's 
kinsfolk  would  usually  present  him  with  a  sheep  or  war- 
spear,  or  something  else  of  value.  He  took  a  great  fancy 
to  the  Masai,  as  indeed  all  of  us  did.  They  are  a  fine, 
manly  set  of  savages,  bold  and  independent  in  their  bear- 
ing. They  never  eat  vegetables,  subsisting  exclusively. on 
milk,  blood,  and  flesh ;  and  are  remarkably  hardy  and 
enduring. 

Kermit  found  a  cave  which  had  recently  been  the  abode 
of  a  party  of  'Ndorobo,  the  wild  hunter-savages  of  the 
wilderness,  who  are  more  primitive  in  their  ways  of  life 
than  any  other  tribes  of  this  region.  They  live  on  honey 
and  the  flesh  of  the  wild  beasts  they  kill;  they  are  naked, 
with  few  and  rude  arms  and  utensils;  and,  in  short,  carry 
on  existence  as  our  own  ancestors  did  at  a  very  early  period 
of  palaeolithic  time.  Around  this  cave  were  many  bones. 
Within  it  were  beds  of  grass,  and  a  small  roofed  enclosure  of 
thorn-bushes  for  the  dogs.  Fire  sticks  had  been  left  on  the 
walls,  to  be  ready  when  the  owners'  wanderings  again 
brought  them  back  to  the  cave;  and  also  very  curious  soup 
sticks,  each  a  rod  with  one  of  the  vertebrae  of  some  animal 
stuck  on  the  end,  designed  for  use  in  stirring  their  boiled 
meat. 

From  our  camp  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  trekked  in  a 
little  over  four  days  to  a  point  on  Lake  Naivasha  where  we 
intended  to  spend  some  time.  The  first  two  days  were  easy 
travelling,  the  porters  not  being  pressed  and  there  being 
plenty  of  time  in  the  afternoons  to  pitch  camp  comforta- 
bly; then  the  wagons  left  us  with  their  loads  of  hides  and 
skeletons  and  spare  baggage.  The  third  day  we  rose  long 
before  dawn,  breakfasted,  broke  camp,  and  were  off  just 
at  sunrise.  There  was  no  path;  at  one  time  we  followed 
game  trails,  at  another  the  trails  made  by  the  Masai  sheep 
and  cattle,  and  again  we  might  make  our  own  trail.     We 


TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA 


247 


had  two  Masai  guides,  tireless  runners,  as  graceful  and 
sinewy  as  panthers;  they  helped  us;  but  Cuninghame 
had  to  do  most  of  the  pathfinding  himself.  It  was  a  diffi- 
cult country,  passable  only  at  certain  points,  which  it  was 
hard  to  place  with  exactness.  We  had  seen  that  each  porter 
had  his  water  bottle  full  before  starting;  but,  though  will- 
ing, good-humored  fellows, 
strong  as  bulls,  in  fore- 
thought they  are  of  the 
grasshopper  type;  and  all 
but  a  few  exhausted  their 
supply  by  mid-afternoon. 
At  this  time  we  were 
among  bold  mountain 
ridges,  and  here  we  struck 
the  kraal  of  some  Masai, 
who  watered  their 
cattle  at  some  spring 
pools,  three  miles  to 
one  side,  up  a  valley. 
It  was  too  far  for  the 
heavily  laden 
porters ;  but  we 
cantered  our 
horses  thither 
and  let  them 
drink  their  fill ; 
and  then  can- 
tered along  the  trail  left  by  the  safari  until  we  overtook 
the  rear  men  just  as  they  were  going  over  the  brink  of  the 
Mau  escarpment.  The  scenery  was  wild  and  beautiful;  in 
the  open  places  the  ground  was  starred  with  flowers  of 
many  colors;  we  rode  under  vine-tangled  archways  through 
forests  of  strange  trees. 

Down  the  steep  mountain  side  went  the  safari,  and  at 
its  foot  struck  off  nearly  parallel  to  the  high  ridge.  On  our 
left  the  tree-clad  mountain  side  hung  above  us;   ravines. 


A  sick  Masai  boy  and  his  lather 

The  sheep  is  a  present  to  Dr.  Mearns  for  services 

From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alden  Loving 


248  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

with  mimosas  clustering  in  them,  sundered  the  foot-hills, 
and  wound  until  they  joined  into  what  looked  like  rivers; 
the  thick  grass  grew  waist  high.  It  looked  like  a  well- 
watered  country;  but  it  was  of  porous,  volcanic  nature,  and 
the  soil  was  a  sieve.  After  nightfall  we  came  to  where  we 
hoped  to  find  water;  but  there  was  not  a  drop  in  the  dried 
pools;  and  we  had  to  make  a  waterless  camp.  A  drizzling 
rain  had  set  in,  enough  to  wet  everything,  but  not  enough 
to  give  any  water  for  drinking.  It  was  eight  o'clock  before 
the  last  of  the  weary,  thirsty  burden-carriers  stumbled 
through  the  black,  bowlder-strewn  ravine  on  whose  farther 
side  we  were  camped,  and  threw  down  his  load  among  his 
fellows,  who  were  already  clustered  around  the  little  fires 
they  had  started  in  the  tall  grass.  We  slept  as  we  were,  and 
comfortably  enough;  indeed,  there  was  no  hardship  for 
us  white  men,  with  our  heavy  overcoats,  and  our  food  and 
water — which  we  shared  with  our  personal  attendants; 
but  I  was  uneasy  for  the  porters,  as  there  was  another  long 
and  exhausting  day's  march  ahead.  Before  sunrise  we 
started;  and  four  hours  later,  in  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
ravine,  Cuninghame  found  a  pool  of  green  water  in  a 
scooped-out  cavity  in  the  rock.  It  was  a  pleasant  sight 
to  see  the  thirsty  porters  drink.  Then  they  sat  down,  built 
fires,  and  boiled  their  food;   and  went  on  in  good  heart. 

Two  or  three  times  we  crossed  singularly  beautiful 
ravines,  the  trail  winding  through  narrow  clefts  that  were 
almost  tunnels,  and  along  the  brinks  of  sheer  cliffs,  while 
the  green  mat  of  trees  and  vines  was  spangled  with  many 
colored  flowers.  Then  we  came  to  barren  ridges  and  bare, 
dusty  plains;  and  at  nightfall  pitched  camp  near  the  shores 
of  Lake  Naivasha.  It  is  a  lovely  sheet  of  water,  surrounded 
by  hills  and  mountains,  the  shores  broken  by  rocky  prom- 
ontories, and  indented  by  papyrus-fringed  bays.  Next  morn- 
ing we  shifted  camp  four  miles  to  a  place  on  the  farm, 
and  near  the  house,  of  the  Messrs.  Attenborough,  settlers 
on  the  shores  of  the  lake,  who  treated  us  with  the  most 
generous  courtesy  and  hospitality — as,  indeed,  did  all  the 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA 


249 


settlers  we  met.  They  were  two  brothers;  one  had  hved 
twenty  years  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  mining  in  the  Sierras, 
and  the  other  had  just  retired  from  the  British  navy,  with 
the  rank  of  commander;   they  were  able  to  turn  their  hands 


The  waterhole  we  struck  after  having  made  a  dry  camp  on  our  trek  to  Naivasha 
From  a  photograph  by  KermU  Roosevelt 

to  anything,  and  were  just  the  men  for  work  in  a  new  coun- 
try— for  a  new  country  is  a  poor  place  for  the  weak  and 
incompetent,  whether  of  body  or  mind.  They  had  a  steam 
launch  and  a  big  heavy  row-boat,  and  they  most  kindly 
and  generously  put  both  at  our  disposal  for  hippo  hunting. 


250 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


At  this  camp  I  presented  the  porters  with  twenty-five 
sheep,  as  a  recognition  of  their  good  conduct  and  hard  work; 
whereupon  they  improvised  long  chants  in  my  honor,  and 
feasted  royally. 

We  spent  one  entire  day  with  the  row-boat  in  a  series 
of  lagoons  near  camp,  which  marked  an  inlet  of  the  lake. 
We  did  not  get  any  hippo,  but  it  was  a  most  interesting 


Camp  at  Lake  Naivasha 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

day.  A  broad  belt  of  papyrus  fringed  the  lagoons  and 
jutted  out  between  them.  The  straight  green  stalks  with 
their  feathery  heads  rose  high  and  close,  forming  a  mass  so 
dense  that  it  was  practically  impenetrable  save  where  the 
huge  bulk  of  the  hippos  had  made  tunnels.  Indeed,  even 
for  the  hippos  it  was  not  readily  penetrable.  The  green 
monotony  of  a  papyrus  swamp  becomes  wearisome  after  a 
while;  yet  it  is  very  beautiful,  for  each  reed  is  tall,  slender, 
graceful,  with  its  pale  flowering  crown;  and  they  are  typ- 
ical of  the  tropics,  and  their  mere  sight  suggests  a  vertical 
sun  and  hot,  steaming  swamps,  where  great  marsh  beasts 
feed  and  wallow  and  bellow,  amidst  a  teeming  reptilian  life. 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA 


251 


A  fringe  of  papyrus  here  and  there  adds  much  to  the  beauty 
of  a  lake,  and  also  to  the  beauty  of  the  river  pools,  where 
clumps  of  them  grow  under  the  shade  of  the  vine-tangled 
tropical  trees. 

The  open  waters  of  the  lagoons  were  covered  with  water- 
lilies,  bearing  purple  or  sometimes  pink  flowers.  Across  the 
broad  lily  pads  ran  the  curious  "lily  trotters,"  or  jacanas, 


Water-lilies,  Lake  Naivasha 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

richly  colored  birds,  with  toes  so  long  and  slender  that  the 
lily  pads  support  them  without  sinking.  They  were  not 
shy,  and  their  varied  coloring — a  bright  chestnut  being 
the  most  conspicuous  hue — and  singular  habits  made  them 
very  conspicuous.  There  was  a  wealth  of  bird  life  in  the 
lagoons.  Small  gulls,  somewhat  like  our  black-headed 
gull,  but  with  their  hoods  gray,  flew  screaming  around  us. 
Black  and  white  kingfishers,  tiny  red-billed  kingfishers,  with 
colors  so  brilliant  that  they  flashed  like  jewels  in  the  sun, 
and  brilliant  green  bee-eaters  with  chestnut  breasts  perched 
among  the  reeds.  Spur-winged  plover  clamored  as  they 
circled  overhead  near  the  edges  of  the  water.     Little  rails  and 


252  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

red-legged  water-hens  threaded  the  edges  of  the  papyrus, 
and  grebes  dived  in  the  open  water.  A  giant  heron,  the  Go- 
hath,  flew  up  at  our  approach;  and  there  were  many  smaller 
herons  and  egrets,  white  or  parti-colored.  There  were  small, 
dark  cormorants,  and  larger  ones  with  white  throats;  and 
African  ruddy  ducks,  and  teal  and  big  yellow-billed  ducks, 
somewhat  like  mallards.  Among  the  many  kinds  of  ducks 
was  one  which  made  a  whistling  noise  with  its  wings  as  it 
flew.  Most  plentiful  of  all  were  the  coots,  much  resembling 
our  common  bald-pate  coot,  but  with  a  pair  of  horns  or 
papillae  at  the  hinder  end  of  the  bare  frontal  space. 

There  were  a  number  of  hippo  in  these  lagoons.  One 
afternoon  after  four  o'clock  I  saw  two  standing  half  out  of 
water  in  a  shallow,  eating  the  water-lilies.  They  seemed 
to  spend  the  fore  part  of  the  day  sleeping  or  resting  in  the 
papyrus  or  near  its  edge;  toward  evening  they  splashed 
and  waded  among  the  water-lilies,  tearing  them  up  with 
their  huge  jaws;  and  during  the  night  they  came  ashore 
to  feed  on  the  grass  and  land  plants.  In  consequence  those 
killed  during  the  day,  until  the  late  afternoon,  had  their 
stomachs  filled,  not  with  water  plants,  but  with  grasses 
which  they  must  have  obtained  in  their  night  journeys  on 
dry  land.  At  night  I  heard  the  bulls  bellowing  and  roar- 
ing. They  fight  savagely  among  themselves,  and  where 
they  are  not  molested,  and  the  natives  are  timid,  they 
not  only  do  great  damage  to  the  gardens  and  crops,  tram- 
pling them  down  and  shovelling  basketfuls  into  their  huge 
mouths,  but  also  become  dangerous  to  human  beings,  at- 
tacking boats  or  canoes  in  a  spirit  of  wanton  and  ferocious 
mischief.  At  this  place,  a  few  weeks  before  our  arrival,  a 
young  bull,  badly  scarred,  and  evidently  having  been  mis- 
handled by  some  bigger  bull,  came  ashore  in  the  daytime 
and  actually  attacked  the  cattle,  and  was  promptly  shot 
in  consequence.  They  are  astonishingly  quick  in  their 
movements  for  such  shapeless-looking,  short-legged  things. 
Of  course  they  cannot  swim  in  deep  water  with  anything 
like  the  speed  of  the  real  swimming  mammals,  nor  move 


"What  one  has  to  shoot  at  when  after  hippo  on  water 
From  a  photograph  by  Kerjuit  Roosevelt 


Mr.  Roosevelt's  liippo  chari^ing  open-mouthed 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


254  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

on  shore  with  the  agihty  and  speed  of  the  true  denizens  of 
the  land;  nevertheless,  by  sheer  muscular  power  and  in 
spite  of  their  shape,  they  move  at  an  unexpected  rate  of 
speed  both  on  dry  land  and  in  deep  water;  and  in  shallow 
water,  their  true  home,  they  gallop  very  fast  on  the  bot- 
tom, under  water.  Ordinarily  only  their  heads  can  be  seen, 
and  they  must  be  shot  in  the  brain.  If  they  are  found  in 
a  pool  with  little  cover,  and  if  the  shots  can  be  taken  close 
by,  from  firm  ground,  there  is  no  sport  whatever  in  killing 
them.  But  the  brain  is  small  and  the  skull  huge,  and  if 
they  are  any  distance  off,  and  especially  if  the  shot  has  to 
be  taken  from  an  unsteady  boat,  there  is  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  miss. 

On  the  day  we  spent  with  the  big  row-boat  in  the  lagoons 
both  Kermit  and  I  had  shots;  each  of  us  hit,  but  neither 
of  us  got  his  game.  My  shot  was  at  the  head  of  a  hippo 
facing  me  in  a  bay  about  a  hundred  yards  off^  so  that  I  had 
to  try  to  shoot  very  low  between  the  eyes;  the  water  was 
smooth,  and  I  braced  my  legs  well  and  fired  off-hand.  I 
hit  him,  but  was  confident  that  I  had  missed  the  brain,  for 
he  lifted  sligntly,  and  then  went  under,  nose  last;  and 
when  a  hippo  is  shot  in  the  brain  the  head  usually  goes 
under  nose  first.  An  exasperating  feature  of  hippo  shoot- 
ing is  that,  save  in  exceptional  circumstances,  where  the 
water  is  very  shallow,  the  animal  sinks  at  once  when  killed 
outright,  and  does  not  float  for  one  or  two  or  three  hours; 
so  that  one  has  to  wait  that  length  of  time  before  finding 
out  whether  the  game  has  or  has  not  been  bagged.  On 
this  occasion  we  never  saw  a  sign  of  the  animal  after  I 
fired,  and  as  it  seemed  impossible  that  in  that  situation  the 
hippo  could  get  off  unobserved,  my  companions  thought  I 
had  killed  him;  I  thought  not,  and  unfortunately  my  judg- 
ment proved  to  be  correct. 

Another  day,  in  the  launch,  I  did  much  the  same  thing. 
Again  the  hippo  was  a  long  distance  off,  only  his  head 
appearing,  but  unfortunately  not  in  profile,  much  the  best 
position  for  a  shot;    again  I  hit  him;    again  he  sank  and, 


.   .2 


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TO    LAKE   NAIVASHA  257 

look  as  hard  as  we  could,  not  a  sign  of  him  appeared,  so 
that  every  one  was  sure  he  was  dead;  and  again  no  body 
ever  floated.  But  on  this  day  Kermit  got  his  hippo.  He 
hit  it  first  in  the  head,  merely  a  flesh  wound;  but  the  startled 
creature  then  rose  high  in  the  water  and  he  shot  it  in  the 
lungs.  It  now  found  difficulty  in  staying  under,  and  con- 
tinually rose  to  the  surface  with  a  plunge  like  a  porpoise, 
going  as  fast  as  it  could  toward  the  papyrus.  After  it  we 
went,  full  speed,  for  once  in  the  papyrus  we  could  not  have 
followed  it;  and  Kermit  finally  killed  it,  just  before  it 
reached  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  and,  luckily,  where  the 
water  was  so  shallow  that  we  did  not  have  to  wait  for  it  to 
float,  but  fastened  a  rope  to  two  of  its  turtle-like  legs,  and 
towed  it  back  forthwith. 

There  were  otters  in  the  lake.  One  day  we  saw  two 
playing  together  near  the  shore;  and  at  first  we  were  all 
of  us  certain  that  it  was  some  big  water  snake.  It  was  not 
until  we  were  very  close  that  we  made  out  the  supposed 
one  big  snake  to  be  two  otters;  it  was  rather  interesting, 
as  giving  one  of  the  explanations  of  the  stories  that  always 
appear  about  large  water  snakes,  or  similar  monsters,  ex- 
isting in  almost  every  lake  of  any  size  in  a  wild  country. 
On  another  day  I  shot  another  near  shore;  he  turned  over 
and  over,  splashing  and  tumbling;  but  just  as  we  were 
about  to  grasp  him,  he  partially  recovered  and  dived  to 
safety  in  the  reeds. 

On  the  second  day  we  went  out  in  the  launch  I  got 
my  hippo.  We  steamed  down  the  lake,  not  far  from  the 
shore,  for  over  ten  miles,  dragging  the  big,  clumsy  row- 
boat,  in  which  Cuninghame  had  put  three  of  our  porters 
who  knew  how  to  row.  Then  we  spied  a  big  hippo  walk- 
ing entirely  out  of  water  on  the  edge  of  the  papyrus,  at  the 
farther  end  of  a  little  bay  which  was  filled  with  water- 
lilies.  Thither  we  steamed,  and  when  a  few  rods  from 
the  bay,  Cuninghame,  Kermit,  and  I  got  into  the  row-boat; 
Cuninghame  steered,  Kermit  carried  his  camera,  and  I 
steadied  myself  in  the  bow  with  the  little  Springfield  rifle. 

17 


258  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

The  hippo  was  a  self-confident,  truculent  beast;  it  went 
under  water  once  or  twice,  but  again  came  out  to  the  papy- 
rus and  waded  along  the  edge,  its  body  out  of  water.  We 
headed  toward  it,  and  thrust  the  boat  ia  among  the  water- 
lilies,  finding  that  the  bay  was  shallow,  from  three  to  six 
feet  deep.  While  still  over  a  hundred  yards  from  the 
hippo,  I  saw  it  turn  as  if  to  break  into  the  papyrus,  and  at 
once  fired  into  its  shoulder,  the  tiny  pointed  bullet  smash- 
ing the  big  bones.  Round  spun  the  great  beast,  plunged 
into  the  water,  and  with  its  huge  jaws  open  came  straight 
for  the  boat,  floundering  and  splashing  through  the  thick- 
growing  water-lilies.  I  think  that  its  chief  object  was  to 
get  to  deep  water;  but  we  were  between  it  and  the  deep 
water,  and  instead  of  trying  to  pass  to  one  side  it  charged 
straight  for  the  boat,  with  open  jaws,  bent  on  mischief. 
But  I  hit  it  again  and  again  with  the  little  sharp-pointed 
bullet.  Once  I  struck  it  between  neck  and  shoulder;  once, 
as  it  rushed  forward  with  its  huge  jaws  stretched  to  their 
threatening  utmost,  I  fired  right  between  them,  whereat 
it  closed  them  with  the  clash  of  a  sprung  bear  trap;  and 
then,  when  under  the  punishment  it  swerved  for  a  mo- 
ment, I  hit  it  at  the  base  of  the  ear,  a  brain  shot  which 
dropped  it  in  its  tracks.  Meanwhile  Kermit  was  busily 
taking  photos  of  it  as  it  charged,  and,  as  he  mentioned 
afterward,  until  it  was  dead  he  never  saw  it  except  in  the 
"finder"  of  his  camera.  The  water  was  so  shallow  where  I 
had  killed  the  hippo  that  its  body  projected  slightly  above 
the  surface.  It  was  the  hardest  kind  of  work  getting  it  out 
from  among  the  water-lilies;  then  we  towed  it  to  carnp 
behind  the  launch. 

The  engineer  of  the  launch  was  an  Indian  Moslem. 
The  fireman  and  the  steersman  were  two  half-naked  and 
much-ornamented  Kikuyus.  The  fireman  wore  a  blue  bead 
chain  on  one  ankle,  a  brass  armlet  on  the  opposite  arm, 
a  belt  of  short  steel  chains,  a  dingy  blanket  (no  loin  cloth), 
and  a  skull-cap  surmounted  by  a  plume  of  ostrich  feathers. 
The   two  Kikuyus  were   unconsciously  entertaining  com- 


260  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

panions.  Without  any  warning  they  would  suddenly  start 
a  song  or  chant,  usually  an  impromptu  recitative  of  what- 
ever at  the  moment  interested  them.  They  chanted  for 
half  an  hour  over  the  feat  of  the  "Bwana  Makuba"  (great 
master  or  chief,  my  name)  in  killing  the  hippo;  laying 
especial  stress  upon  the -quantity  of  excellent  meat  it  would 
furnish,  and  how  very  good  the  eating  would  be.  Usually 
one  would  improvise  the  chant,  and  the  other  join  in  the 
chorus.  Sometimes  they  would  solemnly  sing  compliment- 
ary songs  to  one  another,  each  in  turn  chanting  the  man- 
ifold good  qualities  of  his  companion. 

Around  this  camp  were  many  birds.  The  most  note- 
worthy was  a  handsome  gray  eagle  owl,  bigger  than  our 
great  horned  owl,  to  which  it  is  closely  akin.  It  did  not 
hoot  or  scream,  its  voice  being  a  kind  of  grunt,  followed  in 
a  second  or  two  by  a  succession  of  similar  sounds,  uttered 
more  quickly  and  in  a  lower  tone.  These  big  owls  fre- 
quently came  round  camp  after  dark,  and  at  first  their 
notes  completely  puzzled  me,  as  I  thought  they  must  be 
made  by  some  beast.  The  bulbuls  sang  well.  Most  of 
the  birds  were  in  no  way  like  our  home  birds. 

Loring  trapped  quantities  of  mice  and  rats,  and  it  was 
curious  to  see  how  many  of  them  had  acquired  characters 
which  caused  them  superficially  to  resemble  American 
animals  with  which  they  had  no  real  kinship.  The  sand 
rats  that  burrowed  in  the  dry  plains  were  in  shape,  in  color, 
eyes,  tail,  and  paws  strikingly  like  our  pocket  gophers, 
which  have  similar  habits.  So  the  long-tailed  gerbilles, 
or  gerbille-like  rats,  resembled  our  kangaroo  rats;  and 
there  was  a  blunt-nosed,  stubby-tailed  little  rat  superficially 
hardly  to  be  told  from  our  rice  rat.  But  the  most  charac- 
teristic rodent,  the  big  long-tailed,  jumping  springhaas,  re- 
sembled nothing  of  ours;  and  there  were  tree  rats  and 
spiny  mice.  There  were  gray  monkeys  in  the  trees  around 
camp,  which  the  naturalists  shot. 

Heller  trapped  various  beasts;  beautifully  marked 
genets,   and  a  big  white-tailed  mongoose  which  was  very 


TO   LAKE   NAIVASHA  261 

savage.  But  his  most  remarkable  catch  was  a  leopard.  He 
had  set  a  steel  trap,  fastened  to  a  loose  thorn-branch,  for 
mongoose,  civets,  or  jackals;  it  was  a  number  two  Blake, 
such  as  in  America  we  use  for  coons,  skunks,  foxes,  and 
perhaps  bobcats  and  coyotes.  In  the  morning  he  found 
it  gone,  and  followed  the  trail  of  the  thorn-branch  until 
it  led  into  a  dense  thicket,  from  which  issued  an  ominous 
growl.  His  native  boy  shouted  "simba";  but  it  was  a 
leopard,  not  a  lion.  He  could  not  see  into  the  thicket;  so 
he  sent  back  to  camp  for  his  rifle,  and  when  it  came  he 
climbed  a  tree  and  endeavored  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
animal.  He  could  see  nothing,  however;  and  finally  fired 
into  the  thicket  rather  at  random.  The  answer  was  a  fu- 
rious growl,  and  the  leopard  charged  out  to  the  foot  of  the 
tree,  much  hampered  by  the  big  thorn-branch.  He  put  a 
bullet  into  it,  and  back  it  went,  only  to  come  out  and  to 
receive  another  bullet;  and  he  killed  it.  It  was  an  old  male, 
in  good  condition,  weighing  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
pounds.  The  trap  was  not  big  enough  to  contain  his  whole 
paw,  and  he  had  been  caught  firmly  by  one  toe.  The 
thorn-bush  acted  as  a  drag,  which  prevented  him  from 
going  far,  and  yet  always  yielded  somewhat  when  he  pulled. 
A  bear  thus  caught  would  have  chewed  up  the  trap  or  else 
pulled  his  foot  loose,  even  at  the  cost  of  sacrificing  the  toe; 
but  the  cats  are  more  sensitive  to  pain.  This  leopard  was 
smaller  than  any  full-grown  male  cougar  I  have  ever  killed, 
and  yet  cougars  often  kill  game  rather  heavier  than  leopards 
usually  venture  upon;  yet  very  few  cougars  indeed  would 
show  anything  like  the  pluck  and  ferocity  shown  by  this 
leopard,  and  characteristic  of  its  kind. 

Kermit  killed  a  waterbuck  of  a  kind  new  to  us,  the 
singsing.  He  also  killed  two  porcupines  and  two  baboons. 
The  porcupines  are  terrestrial  animals,  living  in  burrows 
to  which  they  keep  during  the  daytime.  They  are  much 
heavier  than,  and  in  all  their  ways  totally  different  from, 
our  sluggish  tree  porcupines.  The  baboons  were  numer- 
ous around  this  camp,  living  both  among  the  rocks  and  in 


262  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

the  tree  tops.  They  are  hideous  creatures.  They  ravage 
the  crops  and  tear  open  new-born  lambs  to  get  at  the  milk 
inside  them;  and  where  the  natives  are  timid  and  unable 
to  harm  them,  they  become  wantonly  savage  and  aggres- 
sive and  attack  and  even  kill  women  and  children.  In 
Uganda,  Cuninghame  had  once  been  asked  by  a  native 
chief  to  come  to  his  village  and  shoot  the  baboons,  as  they 
had  just  killed  two  women,  badly  bitten  several  children, 
and  caused  such  a  reign  of  terror  that  the  village  would  be 
abandoned  if  they  were  not  killed  or  intimidated.  He  him- 
self saw  the  torn  and  mutilated  bodies  of  the  dead  women; 
and  he  stayed  in  the  village  a  week,  shooting  so  many  ba- 
boons that  the  remainder  were  thoroughly  cowed.  Baboons 
and  boars  are  the  most  formidable  of  all  foes  to  the  dogs 
that  hunt  them — just  as  leopards  are  of  all  wild  animals 
those  most  apt  to  prey  on  dogs.  A  baboon's  teeth  and 
hands  are  far  more  formidable  weapons  than  those  of  any 
dog,  and  only  a  very  few  wholly  exceptional  dogs  of  huge 
size,  and  great  courage  and  intelligence,  can,  single-handed, 
contend  with  an  old  male.  But  we  saw  a  settler  whose  three 
big  terriers  could  themselves  kill  a  full-grown  wart-hog  boar; 
an  almost  unheard-of  feat.  They  backed  up  one  another 
with  equal  courage  and  adroitness,  their  aim  being  for 
two  to  seize  the  hind  legs;  then  the  third,  watching  his 
chance,  would  get  one  foreleg,  when  the  boar  was  speedily 
thrown,  and,  when  weakened,  killed  by  bites  in  his  stomach. 
Hitherto  we  had  not  obtained  a  bull  hippo,  and  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  devote  myself  to  getting  one,  as  otherv^ise 
the  group  for  the  museum  would  be  incomplete.  Save  in 
exceptional  cases  I  do  not  think  hippo  hunting,  after  the 
first  one  has  been  obtained,  a  very  attractive  sport,  because 
usually  one  has  to  wait  an  hoar  before  it  is  possible  to  tell 
whether  or  not  a  shot  has  been  successful,  and  also  be- 
cause, a  portion  of  the  head  being  all  that  is  usually  visible, 
it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  say  whether  the  animal  seen 
is  a  bull  or  a  cow.  As  the  time  allowed  for  a  shot  is  very 
short,   and   any  hesitation  probably  insures   the   animal's 


TO   LAKE   NAIVASHA 


263 


escape,  this  means  that  two  or  three  hippo  may  be  killed, 
quite  unavoidably,  before  the  right  specimen  is  secured. 
Still  there  may  be  interesting  and  exciting  incidents  in  a 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Cuninghame  discussing  the  next  few  days' 

march  over  a  wildebeest  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

hippo  hunt.  Cuninghame,  the  two  Attenboroughs,  and  I 
started  early  in  the  launch,  towing  the  big,  clumsy  row-boat, 
with  as  crew  three  of  our  porters  who  could  row.  We 
steamed  down  the  lake  some  fifteen  miles  to  a  wide  bay, 


264  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

indented  by  smaller  bays,  lagoons,  and  inlets,  all  fringed 
by  a  broad  belt  of  impenetrable  papyrus,  while  the  beauti- 
ful purple  lilies,  with  their  leathery-tough  stems  and  broad 
surface-floating  leaves,  filled  the  shallows.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  main  bay  we  passed  a  floating  island,  a  mass  of  papy- 
rus perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres  in  extent,  which  had 
been  broken  off  from  the  shore  somewhere,  and  was  float- 
ing over  the  lake  as  the  winds  happened  to  drive  it. 

In  an  opening  in  the  dense  papyrus  masses  we  left  the 
launch  moored,  and  Cuninghame  and  I  started  in  the  row- 
boat  to  coast  the  green  wall  of  tall,  thick-growing,  feather- 
topped  reeds.  Under  the  bright  sunshine  the  shallow  flats 
were  alive  with  bird  life.  Gulls,  both  the  gray-hooded  and 
the  black-backed,  screamed  harshly  overhead.  The  chest- 
nut-colored lily  trotters  tripped  daintily  over  the  lily  pads, 
and  when  they  flew,  held  their  long  legs  straight  behind 
them,  so  that  they  looked  as  if  they  had  tails  like  pheasants. 
Sacred  ibis,  white  with  naked  black  head  and  neck,  stalked 
along  the  edge  of  the  water,  and  on  the  bent  papyrus  small 
cormorants  and  herons  perched.  Everywhere  there  were 
coots  and  ducks,  and  crested  grebes,  big  and  little.  Huge 
white  pelicans  floated  on  the  water.  Once  we  saw  a  string 
of  flamingoes  fly  by,  their  plumage  a  wonderful  red. 

Immediately  after  leaving  the  launch  we  heard  a  hippo, 
hidden  in  the  green  fastness  on  our  right,  uttering  a  med- 
itative soliloquy,  consisting  of  a  succession  of  squealing 
grunts.  Then  we  turned  a  point,  and  in  a  little  bay  saw 
six  or  eight  hippo,  floating  with  their  heads  above  water. 
There  were  two  much  bigger  than  the  others,  and  Cuning- 
hame, while  of  course  unable  to  be  certain,  thought  these 
were  probably  males.  The  smaller  ones,  including  a  cow 
and  her  calf,  were  not  much  alarmed,  and  floated  quietly, 
looking  at  us,  as  we  cautiously  paddled  and  drifted  nearer; 
but  the  bigger  ones  dove  and  began  to  work  their  way  past 
us  toward  deep  water.  We  could  trace  their  course  by 
the  twisting  of  the  lily  pads.  Motionless  the  rowers  lay  on 
their  oars;    the  line  of  moving  lily  pads  showed  that  one 


266  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

of  the  big  hippo  was  about  to  pass  the  boat;  suddenly 
the  waters  opened  close  at  hand  and  a  monstrous  head  ap- 
peared. ''Shoot/'  said  Cuninghame;  and  I  fired  into  the 
back  of  the  head  just  as  it  disappeared.  It  sank  out  of  sight 
without  a  splash,  almost  without  a  ripple,  the  lily  pads 
ceased  twisting;  a  few  bubbles  of  air  rose  to  the  surface; 
evidently  the  hippo  lay  dead  underneath.  Poling  to  the 
spot,  we  at  once  felt  the  huge  body  with  our  oar  blades. 
But,  alas,  when  the  launch  came  round,  and  we  raised  the 
body,  it  proved  to  be  that  of  a  big  cow. 

So  I  left  Cuninghame  to  cut  off  the  head  for  the  museum, 
and  started  off  by  myself  in  the  boat  with  two  rowers, 
neither  of  whom  spoke  a  word  of  English.  For  an  hour 
we  saw  only  the  teeming  bird  life.  Then,  in  a  broad,  shal- 
low lagoon,  we  made  out  a  dozen  hippo,  two  or  three  very 
big.  Cautiously  we  approached  them,  and  when  seventy 
yards  off  I  fired  at  the  base  of  the  ear  of  one  of  the  largest. 
Down  went  every  head,  and  utter  calm  succeeded.  I 
had  marked  the  spot  where  the  one  at  which  I  shot  had 
disappeared,  and  thither  we  rowed.  When  we  reached  the 
place,  1  told  one  of  the  rowers  to  thrust  a  pole  down  and  see 
if  he  could  touch  the  dead  body.  He  thrust  according,  and 
at  once  shouted  that  he  had  found  the  hippo;  in  another 
moment  his  face  altered,  and  he  shouted  much  more  loudly 
that  the  hippo  was.  alive.  Sure  enough,  bump  went  the 
hippo  against  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  the  jar  causing  us 
all  to  sit  suddenly  down — for  we  were  standing.  Another 
bump  showed  that  we  had  again  been  struck;  and  the  shal- 
low, muddy  water  boiled,  as  the  huge  beasts,  above  and 
below  the  surface,  scattered  every  which  way.  Their  eyes 
starting,  the  two  rowers  began  to  back  water  out  of  the 
dangerous  neighborhood,  while  I  shot  at  an  animal  whose 
head  appeared  to  my  left,  as  it  made  off  with  frantic  haste; 
for  I  took  it  for  granted  that  the  hippo  at  which  I  had 
first  fired  (and  which  was  really  dead)  had  escaped.  This 
one  disappeared  as  usual,  and  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea 
whether  or  not  I  had  killed  it.     I  had  small  opportunity  to 


TO   LAKE  NAIVASHA  267 

ponder  the  subject,  for  twenty  feet  away  the  water  bubbled 
and  a  huge  head  shot  out  facing  me,  the  jaws  wide  open. 
There  was  no  time  to  guess  at  its  intentions^  and  I  fired  on 
the  instant.  Down  went  the  head,  and  I  fek  the  boat  quiver 
as  the  hippo  passed  underneath.  Just  here  the  hly  pads 
were  thick;  so  I  marked  its  course,  fired  as  it  rose,  and 
down  it  went.  But  on  the  other  quarter  of  the  boat  a  beast, 
evidently  of  great  size — it  proved  to  be  a  big  bull— now 
appeared,  well  above  water;  and  I  put  a  bullet  into  its 
brain. 

I  did  not  wish  to  shoot  again  unless  I  had  to,  and  stood 
motionless,  with  the  little  Springfield  at  the  ready.  A  head 
burst  up  twenty  yards  off,  with  a  lily  pad  plastered  over  one 
eye,  giving  the  hippo  an  absurd  resemblance  to  a  discom- 
fited prize-fighter,  and  then  disappeared  with  great  agita- 
tion. Two  half-grown  beasts  stupid  from  fright  appeared, 
and  stayed  up  for  a  minute  or  two  at  a  time,  not  knowing 
what  to  do.  Other  heads  popped  up,  getting  farther  and 
farther  away.  By  degrees  everything  vanished,  the  water 
grew  calm,  and  we  rowed  over  to  the  papyrus,  moored  our- 
selves by  catching  hold  of  a  couple  of  stems,  and  awaited 
events.  Within  an  hour  four  dead  hippos  appeared:  a  very 
big  bull  and  three  big  cows.  Of  course,  I  would  not  have 
shot  the  latter  if  it  could  have  been  avoided;  but  under  the 
circumstances  I  do  not  see  how  it  was  possible  to  help  it. 
The  meat  was  not  wasted;  on  the  contrary  it  was  a  god- 
send, not  only  to  our  own  porters,  but  to  the  natives  round 
about,  many  of  whom  were  on  short  commons  on  account 
of  the  drought.  ' 

Bringing  over  the  launch  we  worked  until  after  dark 
to  get  the  bull  out  of  the  difficult  position  in  which  he  lay. 
It  was  nearly  seven  o'clock  before  we  had  him  fixed  for 
towing  on  one  quarter,  the  row-boat  towing  on  the  other, 
by  which  time  two  hippos  were  snorting  and  blowing  within 
a  few  yards  of  us,  their  curiosity  much  excited  as  to  what 
was  going  on.  The  night  was  overcast;  there  were  drench- 
ing rain  squalls,  and  a  rather  heavy  sea  was  running,  and  I 


268 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


did  not  get  back  to  camp  until  after  three.     Next  day  the 
launch  fetched  in  the  rest  of  the  hippo  meat. 

From  this  camp  we  went  into  Naivasha,  on  the  hne  of 
the  railway.  In  many  places  the  road  was  beautiful,  lead- 
ing among  the  huge  yellow  trunks  of  giant  thorn-trees,  the 


Mr.  Roosevelt's  big  bull  hippo 
From  a  photograph  by  Kennit  Roosevelt 


ground  rising  sheer  on  our  left  as  we  cantered  along  the 
edge  of  the  lake.  We  passed  impalla,  tommies,  zebra,  and 
wart-hog;  and  in  one  place  saw  three  waterbuck  cows  feed- 
ing just  outside  the  papyrus  at  high  noon.  They  belonged 
to  a  herd  that  lived  in  the  papyrus  and  fed  on  the  grassy 
flats  outside;  and  their  feeding  in  the  open  exactly  at  noon 
was  another  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  custom  of  feeding 
in  the  early  morning  and  late  evening  is  with  most  game 
entirely   artificial   and   the   result   of    fear  of  man.      Birds 


TO   LAKE   NAIVASHA  269 

abounded.  Parties  of  the  dark-colored  ant-eating  wheat- 
ear  sang  sweetly  from  trees  and  bushes,  and  even  from 
the  roofs  of  the  settlers'  houses.  The  tricolored  starlings 
— black,  white,  and  chestnut — sang  in  the  air,  as  well  as 
when  perched  on  twigs.  Stopping  at  the  government  farm 
(which  is  most  interesting;  the  results  obtained  in  im- 
proving the  native  sheep,  goats,  and  cattle  by  the  use  of 
imported  thoroughbred  bulls  and  rams  have  been  astonish- 
ingly successful)  we  saw  the  little  long-tailed,  red-billed, 
black  and  white  whydahs  flitting  around  the  out-build- 
ings as  familiarly  as  sparrows.  Water  birds  of  all  kinds 
thronged  the  meadows  bordering  the  papyrus,  and  swam 
and  waded  among  the  water-lilies ;  sacred  ibis,  herons, 
beautiful  white  spoonbills,  darters,  cormorants,  Egyptian 
geese,  ducks,  coots,  and  water-hens.  I  got  up  within  rifle 
range  of  a  flock  of  the  queer  ibis  stork,  black  and  white 
birds  with  curved  yellow  bills,  naked  red  faces,  and  won- 
derful purple  tints  on  the  edges  and  the  insides  of  the 
wings;  with  the  little  Springfield  I  shot  one  on  the  ground 
and  another  on  the  wing,  after  the  flock  had  risen. 

That  night  Kermit  and  Dr.  Mearns  went  out  with 
lanterns  and  shot-guns,  and  each  killed  one  of  the  spring- 
haas,  the  jumping  hares,  which  abounded  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. These  big,  burrowing  animals,  which  progress 
by  jumping  like  kangaroos,  are  strictly  nocturnal,  and  their 
eyes  shine  in  the  glare  of  the  lanterns. 

Next  day  I  took  the  Fox  gun,  which  had  already  on 
ducks,  guinea-fowl,  and  francolin  shown  itself  an  excep- 
tionally hard-hitting  and  close-shooting  weapon,  and  col- 
lected various  water  birds  for  the  naturalists;  among  others, 
a  couple  of  Egyptian  geese.  I  also  shot  a  white  pelican 
with  the  Springfield  rifle;  there  was  a  beautiful  rosy  flush 
on  the  breast. 

Here  we  again  got  news  of  the  outside  world.  While 
on  safari  the  only  newspaper  which  any  of  us  ever  saw  was 
the  Owego  Gazette,  which  Loring,  in  a  fine  spirit  of  neigh- 
borhood loyalty,  always  had  sent  to  him  in  his  mail.     To 


270  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

the  Doctor,  by  the  way,  I  had  become  knit  in  a  bond  of 
close  intellectual  sympathy  ever  since  a  chance  allusion 
to  "William  Henry's  Letters  to  His  Grandmother"  had 
disclosed  the  fact  that  each  of  us,  ever  since  the  days  of  his 
youth,  had  preserved  the  bound  volumes  of  ''Our  Young 
Folks,"  and  moreover  firmly  believed  that  there  never  had 
been  its  equal  as  a  magazine,  whether  for  old  or  young; 
even  though  the  Plancus  of  our  golden  consulship  was  the 
not  wholly  happy  Andrew  Johnson. 


CHAPTER  X 

ELEPHANT  HUNTING  ON  MOUNT  KENIA 

On  July  24th,  in  order  to  ship  our  fresh  accumulations 
of  specimens  and  trophies,  we  once  more  went  into  Nairobi. 
It  was  a  pleasure  again  to  see  its  tree-bordered  streets  and 


Meru  porters  carrying  trophy  ivory 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


charming  houses  bowered  in  vines  and  bushes,  and  to 
meet  once  more  the  men  and  women  who  dwelt  in  the 
houses.  I  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  thank  individually 
the  members  of  the  many  East  African  households  of  which 
I  shall  always  cherish  warm  memories  of  friendship  and 
regard. 

At  Nairobi  I  saw  Selous,  who  had  just  returned  from 
a  two  months'  safari  with  McMillan,  Williams,  and  Judd. 
Their  experience  shows  how  large  the  element  of  luck 
is  in  lion  hunting.  Selous  was  particularly  anxious  to  kill 
a  good  lion;  there  is  nowhere  to  be  found  a  more  skilful  or 
more  hard-working  hunter;    yet  he  never  even  got  a  shot. 

271 


272  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

Williams,  on  the  other  hand,  came  across  three.  Two  he 
killed  easily.  The  third  charged  him.  He  was  carrying 
a  double-barrelled  .450,  but  failed  to  stop  the  beast;  it 
seized  him  by  the  leg,  and  his  life  was  saved  by  his  Swahili 
gun-bearer,  who  gave  the  lion  a  fatal  shot  as  it  stood  over 
him.  He  came  within  an  ace  of  dying;  but  when  I  saw 
him,  at  the  hospital,  he  was  well  on  the  road  to  recovery. 
One  day  Selous  while  on  horseback  saw  a  couple  of  lion- 
esses, and  galloped  after  them,  followed  by,  Judd,  seventy  or 
eighty  yards  behind.  One  lioness  stopped  and  crouched 
under  a  bush,  let  Selous  pass,  and  then  charged  Judd. 
She  was  right  alongside  him,  and  he  fired  from  the  hip; 
the  bullet  went  into  her  eye;  his  horse  jumped  and  swerved 
at  the  shot,  throwing  him  off,  and  he  found  himself  sitting 
on  the  ground,  not  three  yards  from  the  dead  lioness. 
Nothing  more  was  seen  of  the  other. 

Continually  I  met  men  with  experiences  in  their  past 
lives  which  showed  how  close  the  country  was  to  those 
primitive  conditions  in  which  warfare  with  wild  beasts  was 
one  of  the  main  features  of  man's  existence.  At  one  dinner 
my  host  and  two  of  my  fellow-guests  had  been  within  a 
year  or  eighteen  months  severely  mauled  by  lions.  All 
three,  by  the  way,  informed  me  that  the  actual  biting  caused 
them  at  the  moment  no  pain  whatever;  the  pain  came  later. 
On  meeting  Harold  Hill,  my  companion  on  one  of  my 
Kapiti  Plains  lion  hunts,  I  found  that  since  I  had  seen  him 
he  had  been  roughly  handled  by  a  dying  leopard.  The 
government  had  just  been  obliged  to  close  one  of  the  trade 
routes  to  native  caravans  because  of  the  ravages  of  a  man- 
eating  lion,  which  carried  men  away  from  the  camps.  A 
safari  which  had  come  in  from  the  north  had  been  charged 
by  a  rhino,  and  one  of  the  porters  tossed  and  killed,  the 
horn  being  driven  clean  through  his  loins.  At  Heatley's 
farm  three  buffalo  (belonging  to  the  same  herd  from  which 
we  had  shot  five)  rushed  out  of  the  papyrus  one  afternoon 
at  a  passing  buggy,  which  just  managed  to  escape  by  a 
breakneck  run  across  the  level  plain,  the  beasts  chasing  it 


ELEPHANT   HUNTING  273 

for  a  mile.  One  afternoon,  at  Government  House,  I  met 
a  government  official  who  had  once  succeeded  in  driving 
into  a  corral  seventy  zebras,  including  more  stallions  than 
mares;  their  misfortune  in  no  way  abated  their  savagery 
toward  one  another,  and  as  the  limited  space  forbade  the 
escape  of  the  weaker,  the  stallions  fought  to  the  death  with 
teeth  and  hoofs  during  the  first  night,  and  no  less  than 
twenty  were  killed  outright  or  died  of  their  wounds. 

Most  of  the  time  in  Nairobi  we  were  the  guests  of  ever- 
hospitable  McMillan,  in  his  low,  cool  house,  with  its  broad, 
vine-shaded  veranda,  running  around  all  four  sides,  and  its 
garden,  fragrant  and  brilliant  with  innumerable  flowers. 
Birds  abounded,  singing  beautifully;  the  bulbuls  were  the 
most  noticeable  singers,  but  there  were  many  others.  The 
dark  ant-eating  chats  haunted  the  dusky  roads  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  town,  and  were  interesting  birds;  they  were 
usually  found  in  parties,  flirted  their  tails  up  and  down 
as  they  sat  on  bushes  or  roofs  or  wires,  sang  freely  in  chorus 
until  after  dusk,  and  then  retired  to  holes  in  the  ground  for 
the  night.  A  tiny  owl  with  a  queer  little  voice  called  con- 
tinually not  only  after  nightfall,  but  in  the  bright  afternoons. 
Shrikes  spitted  insects  on  the  spines  of  the  imported  cactus 
in  the  gardens. 

It  was  race  week,  and  the  races,  in  some  of  which  Kermit 
rode,  were  capital  fun.  The  white  people — army  officers, 
government  officials,  farmers  from  the  country  roundabout, 
and  their  wives — rode  to  the  races  on  ponies  or  even  on 
camels,  or  drove  up  in  rickshaws,  in  gharries,  in  bullock 
tongas,  occasionally  in  automobiles,  most  often  in  two- 
wheel  carts  or  rickety  hacks  drawn  by  mules  and  driven  by 
a  turbaned  Indian  or  a  native  in  a  cotton  shirt.  There 
were  Parsees,  and  Goanese  dressed  just  like  the  Europeans. 
There  were  many  other  Indians,  their  picturesque  women- 
kind  gaudy  in  crimson,  blue,  and  saffron.  The  constabu- 
lary, Indian  and  native,  were  in  neat  uniforms  and  well 
set  up,  though  often  barefooted.  Straight,  slender  Somalis 
with  clear-cut  features  were  in  attendance  on  the  horses. 

IS 


274  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Native  negroes,  of  many  different  tribes,  flocked  to  the 
race-course  and  its  neighborhood.  The  Swahihs,  and  those 
among  the  others  who  aspired  toward  civihzation,  were  well 
clad,  the  men  in  half  European  costume,  the  women  in 
flowing,  parti-colored  robes.  But  most  of  them  were  clad, 
or  unclad,  just  as  they  always  had  been.  Wakamba,  with 
filed  teeth,  crouched  in  circles  on  the  ground.  Kikuyu 
passed,  the  men  each  with  a  blanket  hung  round  the  shoul- 
ders, and  girdles  of  chains,  and  armlets  and  anklets  of 
solid  metal;  the  older  women  bent  under  burdens  they 
carried  on  the  back,  half  of  them  in  addition  with  babies 
slung  somewhere  round  them,  while  now  and  then  an  un- 
married girl  would  have  her  face  painted  with  ochre  and 
vermilion.  A  small  party  of  Masai  warriors  kept  close 
together,  each  clutching  his  shining,  long-bladed  war  spear, 
their  hair  daubed  red  and  twisted  into  strings.  A  large 
band  of  Kavirondo,  stark  naked,  with  shield  and  spear  and 
head-dress  of  nodding  plumes,  held  a  dance  near  the  race- 
track. As  for  the  races  themselves,  they  were  carried  on  in 
the  most  sporting  spirit,  and  only  the  Australian  poet  Pat- 
terson could  adequately  write  of  them. 

On  August  4th  I  returned  to  Lake  Naivasha,  stopping 
on  the  way  at  Kijibe  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  the  new 
mission  building.  Mearns  and  Loring  had  stayed  at  Nai- 
vasha and  had  collected  many  birds  and  small  mammals. 
That  night  they  took  me  out  on  a  springhaas  hunt.  Thanks 
to  Kermit  we  had  discovered  that  the  way  to  get  this  curi- 
ous and  purely  nocturnal  animal  was  by  "shining"  it  with 
a  lantern  at  night,  just  as  in  our  own  country  deer,  coons, 
owls,  and  other  creatures  can  be  killed.  Springhaas  live 
in  big  burrows,  a  number  of  them  dwelling  together  in  one 
community,  the  holes  close  to  one  another,  and  making 
what  in  the  West  we  would  call  a  "town"  in  speaking  of 
prairie  dogs.  At  night  they  come  out  to  feed  on  the  grass. 
They  are  as  heavy  as  a  big  jack-rabbit,  with  short  forelegs, 
and  long  hind  legs  and  tail,  so  that  they  look  and  on  occasion 
move  like  miniature  kangaroos,  although,  in  addition  to 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


275 


making  long  hops  or  jumps,  they  often  run  almost  like  an 
ordinary  rat  or  rabbit.  They  are  pretty  creatures,  fawn- 
colored  above,  and  white  beneath,  with  the  terminal  half 
of  the  tail  very  dark.  In  hunting  them  we  simply  walked 
over  the  flats  for  a  couple  of  hours,  flashing  the  bull's-eye 
lantern  on  all  sides, 
until  we  saw  the  light 
reflected  back  by  a 
springhaas's  eyes. 
Then  I  would  ap- 
proach to  within 
range,  and  hold  the 
lantern  in  my  left 
hand  so  as  to  shine 
both  on  the  sight 
and  on  the  eyes  in 
front,  resting  my  gun 
on  my  left  wrist. 
The  number  3  shot, 
in  the  Fox  double- 
barrel,  would  always 
do  the  business,  if  I 

held  straight  enough.  There  was  nothing  but  the  gleam  of 
the  eyes  to  shoot  at;  and  this  might  suddenly  be  raised  or 
lowered  as  the  intently  watching  animal  crouched  on  all- 
fours  or  raised  itself  on  its  hind  legs.  I  shot  half  a  dozen, 
all  that  the  naturalists  wanted.  Then  I  tried  to  shoot  a 
fox;  but  the  moon  had  risen  from  behind  a  cloud  bank;  I 
had  to  take  a  long  shot  and  missed;  but  my  companions 
killed  several,  and  found  that  they  were  a  new  species  of 
the  peculiar  African  long-eared  fox. 

While  waiting  for  the  safari  to  get  ready,  Kermit  went 
off  on  a  camping  trip  and  shot  two  bushbuck,  while  I  spent 
a  couple  of  days  trying  for  singsing  waterbuck  on  the  edge  of 
the  papyrus.  I  missed  a  bull,  and  wounded  another  which  I 
did  not  get.  This  was  all  the  more  exasperating  because 
interspersed  with  the  misses  were  some  good  shots:   I  killed 


A  waterbuck 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


276 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


a  line  waterbuck  cow  at  a  hundred  yards,  and  a  buck 
tommy  for  the  table  at  two  hundred  and  fifty;  and,  after 
missing  a  handsome  black  and  white,  red-billed  and  red- 
legged  jabiru,  or  saddle-billed  stork,  at  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards,  as  he  stalked  through  the  meadow  after  frogs,  I  cut 
him  down  on  the  wing  at  a  hundred  and  eighty,  with  the 


Creek  on  slopes  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

little  Springfield  rifle.  The  waterbuck  spent  the  daytime 
outside,  but  near  the  edge  of,  the  papyrus;  I  found  them 
grazing  or  resting^  in  the  open,  at  all  times  between  early 
morning  and  late  afternoon.  Some  of  them  spent  most  of 
the  day  in  the  papyrus,  keeping  to  the  watery  trails  made 
by  the  hippos  and  by  themselves;  but  this  was  not  the 
general  habit,  unless  they  had  been  persecuted.  When 
frightened  they  often  ran  into  the  papyrus,  smashing  the 
dead  reeds  and  splashing  the  water  in  their  rush.  They  are 
noble-looking  antelope,  with  long,  shaggy  hair,  and  their 
chosen  haunts  beside  the  lake  were  very  attractive.  Clumps 
of  thorn-trees  and  flowering  bushes  grew  at  the  edge  of 
the  tall  papyrus  here  and  there,  and  often  formed  a  matted 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  277 

jungle,  the  trees  laced  together  by  creepers,  many  of  them 
brilliant  in  their  bloom.  The  climbing  morning-glories 
sometimes  completely  covered  a  tree  with  their  i)ale-piiri)lc 
flowers;  and  other  blossoming  vines  sj^angled  the  green  over 
which  their  sprays  were  flung  with  masses  of  bright  yellow. 

Four  days'  march  from  Naivasha,  where  we  again  left 
Mearns  and  Loring,  took  us  to  Neri.  Our  line  of  march 
lay  across  the  high  plateaus  and  mountain  chains  of  the 
Aberdare  range.  The  steep,  twisting  trail  was  slippery  with 
mud.  Our  last  camp,  at  an  altitude  of  about  ten  thousand 
feet,  was  so  cold  that  the  water  froze  in  the  basins,  and 
the  shivering  porters  slept  in  numbed  discomfort.  There 
was  constant  fog  and  rain,  and  on  the  highest  plateau  the 
bleak  landscape,  shrouded  in  driving  mist,  was  northern  to 
all  the  senses.  The  ground  was  rolling,  and  through  the 
deep  valleys  ran  brawling  brooks  of  clear  water;  one  little 
foaming  stream,  suddenly  tearing  down  a  hill-side,  might 
have  been  that  which  Childe  Roland  crossed  before  he 
came  to  the  dark  tower. 

There  was  not  much  game,  and  it  generally  moved  abroad 
by  night.  One  frosty  evening  we  killed  a  duiker  by  shin- 
ing its  eyes.  We  saw  old  elephant  tracks.  The  high,  wet 
levels  swarmed  with  mice  and  shrews,  just  as  our  arctic 
and  alpine  meadows  swarm  with  them.  The  species  were 
really  widely  difl^erent  from  ours,  but  many  of  them  showed 
curious  analogies  in  form  and  habits;  there  was  a  short- 
tailed  shrew  much  like  our  mole  shrew,  and  a  long-haired, 
short-tailed  rat  like  a  very  big  meadow  mouse.  They  were 
so  plentiful  that  we  frequently  saw  them,  and  the  grass 
was  cut  up  by  their  runways.  They  were  abroad  during 
the  day,  probably  finding  the  nights  too  cold,  and  in  an 
hour  Heller  trapped  a  dozen  or  two  individuals  belonging 
to  seven  species  and  five  different  genera.  There  were 
not  many  birds  so  high  up.  There  were  deer  ferns;  and 
Spanish  moss  hung  from  the  trees  and  even  from  the  bam- 
boos. The  flowers  included  utterly  strange  forms,  as  for 
instance   giant   lobelias   ten   feet   high.      Others   we   know 


278  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

in  our  gardens;  geraniums  and  red-hot  pokers,  which  in 
places  turned  the  glades  to  a  fire  color.  Yet  others  either 
were  like,  or  looked  like,  our  own  wild  flowers:  orange 
lady-slippers,  red  gladiolus  on  stalks  six  feet  high,  pansy- 
like violets,  and  blackberries  and  yellow  raspberries.  There 
were  stretches  of  bushes  bearing  masses  of  small  red  or 
large  white  flowers  shaped  somewhat  like  columbines,  or 
like  the  garden  balsam;  the  red  flower  bushes  were  under 
the  bamboos,  the  white  at  a  lower  level.  The  crests  and 
upper  slopes  of  the  mountains  were  clothed  in  the  green 
uniformity  of  the  bamboo  forest,  the  trail  winding  dim  under 
its  dark  archway  of  tall,  close-growing  stems.  Lower  down 
were  junipers  and  yews,  and  then  many  other  trees,  with 
among  them  tree  ferns  and  strange  dragon-trees  with  lily- 
like frondage.  Zone  succeeded  zone  from  top  to  bottom, 
each  marked  by  a  different  plant  life. 

In  this  part  of  Africa,  where  flowers  bloom  and  birds 
sing  all  the  year  round,  there  is  no  such  burst  of  bloom  and 
song  as  in  the  northern  spring  and  early  summer.  There  is 
nothing  like  the  mass  of  blossoms  which  carpet  the  meadows 
of  the  high  mountain  valleys  and  far  northern  meadows, 
during  their  brief  high  tide  of  life,  when  one  short  joyous 
burst  of  teeming  and  vital  beauty  atones  for  the  long  death 
of  the  iron  fall  and  winter.  So  it  is  with  the  bird  songs. 
Many  of  them  are  beautiful,  though  to  my  ears  none  quite 
as  beautiful  as  the  best  of  our  own  bird  songs.  At  any  rate 
there  is  nothing  that  quite  corresponds  to  the  chorus  that 
during  May  and  June  moves  northward  from  the  Gulf 
States  and  southern  California  to  Maine,  Minnesota,  and 
Oregon,  to  Ontario  and  Saskatchewan;  when  there  comes 
the  great  vernal  burst  of  bloom  and  song;  when  the  may- 
flower,  bloodroot,  wake-robin,  anemone,  adder's  tongue, 
liverwort,  shadblow,  dogwood,  redbud,  gladden  the  woods; 
when  mocking-birds  and  cardinals  sing  in  the  magnolia 
groves  of  the  South,  and  hermit  thrushes,  winter  wrens, 
and  sweetheart  sparrows  in  the  spruce  and  hemlock  forests 
of  the  North;    when  bobohnks  in  the  East  and  meadow- 


280  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

larks  East  and  West  sing  in  the  fields;  and  water  ousels  by 
the  cold  streams  of  the  Rockies,  and  canyon  wrens  in  their 
sheer  gorges;  when  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  the 
Pacific  wood  thrushes,  veeries,  rufous-backed  thrushes, 
robins,  bluebirds,  orioles,  thrashers,  cat-birds,  house  finches, 
song  sparrows — some  in  the  East,  some  in  the  West,  some 
both  East  and  West — and  many,  many  other  singers  thrill 
the  gardens  at  sunrise;  until  the  long  days  begin  to  shorten, 
and  tawny  lilies  burn  by  the  roadside,  and  the  indigo  bunt- 
ings trill  from  the  tops  of  little  trees  throughout  the  hot 
afternoons. 

We  were  in  the  Kikuyu  country.  On  our  march  we  met 
several  parties  of  natives.  I  had  been  much  inclined  to 
pity  the  porters,  who  had  but  one  blanket  apiece;  but 
when  I  saw  the  Kikuyus,  each  with  nothing  but  a  smaller 
blanket,  and  without  the  other  clothing  and  the  tents  of 
the  porters,  I  realized  how  much  better  ofi^  the  latter  were 
simply  because  they  were  on  a  white  man's  safari.  At 
Neri  boma  we  were  greeted  with  the  warmest  hospitality 
by  the  district  commissioner,  Mr.  Browne.  Among  other 
things,  he  arranged  a  great  Kikuyu  dance  in  our  honor. 
Two  thousand  warriors,  and  many  women,  came  in;  as 
well  as  a  small  party  of  Masai  moran.  The  warriors  were 
naked,  or  half-naked;  some  carried  gaudy  blankets,  others 
girdles  of  leopard  skin;  their  ox-hide  shields  were  colored 
in  bold  patterns,  their  long-bladed  spears  quivered  and 
gleamed.  Their  faces  and  legs  were  painted  red  and  yellow; 
the  faces  of  the  young  men  who  were  about  to  undergo  the 
rite  of  circumcision  were  stained  a  ghastly  white,  and  their 
bodies  fantastically  painted.  The  warriors  wore  bead  neck- 
laces and  waist  belts  and  armlets  of  brass  and  steel,  and 
spurred  anklets  of  monkey  skin.  Some  wore  head-dresses 
made  out  of  a  lion's  mane  or  from  the  long  black  and  white 
fur  of  the  Colobus  monkey;  others  had  plumes  stuck  in 
their  red-daubed  hair.  They  chanted  in  unison  a  deep- 
toned  chorus,  and  danced  rhythmically  in  rings,  while  the 
drums  throbbed  and  the   horns  blared;    and  they  danced 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  281 

by  us  in  column,  springing  and  chanting.  The  women 
shrilled  applause,  and  danced  in  groups  by  themselves. 
The  Masai  circled  and  swung  in  a  panther-like  dance  of 
their  own,  and  the  measure,  and  their  own  fierce  singing 
and  calling,  maddened  them  until  two  of  their  number, 
their  eyes  staring,  their  faces  working,  went  into  fits  of  ber- 
serker frenzy,  and  were  disarmed  at  once  to  prevent  mis- 
chief. Some  of  the  tribesmen  held  wilder  dances  still  in  the 
evening,  by  the  light  of  fires  that  blazed  in  a  grove  where 
their  thatched  huts  stood. 

The  second  day  after  reaching  Neri  the  clouds  lifted 
and  we  dried  our  damp  clothes  and  blankets.  Through 
the  bright  sunlight  we  saw  in  front  of  us  the  high  rock 
peaks  of  Kenia,  and  shining  among  them  the  fields  of  ever- 
lasting snow  which  feed  her  glaciers;  for  beautiful,  lofty 
Kenia  is  one  of  the  glacier-bearing  mountains  of  the  equator. 
Here  Kermit  and  Tarlton  went  northward  on  a  safari  of 
their  own,  while  Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  I  headed  for 
Kenia  itself.  For  two  days  we  travelled  through  a  well- 
peopled  country.  The  fields  of  corn — ^always  called  mealies 
in  Africa — of  beans,  and  sweet-potatoes,  with  occasional 
plantations  of  bananas,  touched  one  another  in  almost  un- 
interrupted succession.  In  most  of  them  we  saw  the  Ki- 
kuyu  women  at  work  with  their  native  hoes;  for  among  the 
Kikuyus,  as  among  other  savages,  the  woman  is  the  drudge 
and  beast  of  burden.  Our  trail  led  by  clear,  rushing 
streams,  which  formed  the  head-waters  of  the  Tana; 
among  the  trees  fringing  their  banks  were  graceful  palms, 
and  there  were  groves  of  tree  ferns  here  and  there  on  the 
sides  of  the  gorges. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  we  struck  upward 
among  the  steep  foot-hills  of  the  mountain,  riven  by  deep 
ravines.  We  pitched  camp  in  an  open  glade,  surrounded 
by  the  green  wall  of  tangled  forest,  the  forest  of  the  tropical 
mountain  sides. 

The  trees,  strange  of  kind  and  endless  in  variety,  grew 
tall  and  close,  laced  together  by  vine  and  creeper,  while 


282 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


underbrush  crowded  the  space  between  their  mossy  trunks, 
and  covered  the  leafy  mould  beneath.  Toward  dusk  crested 
ibis  flew  overhead  with  harsh  clamor,  to  seek  their  night 
roosts;  parrots  chattered,  and  a  curiously  home-like  touch 
was  given  by  the  presence  of  a  thrush  in  color  and  shape  al- 
most exactly  like  our  robin.     Monkeys  called  in  the  depths 


Kikuyu  village  near  first  elephant  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


of  the  forest,  and  after  dark  tree-frogs  piped  and  croaked, 
and  the  tree  hyraxes  uttered  their  wailing  cries. 

Elephants  dwelt  permanently  in  this  mountainous  re- 
gion of  heavy  woodland.  On  our  march  thither  we  had 
already  seen  their  traces  in  the  "shambas/'  as  the  culti- 
vated fields  of  the  natives  are  termed;  for  the  great  beasts 
are  fond  of  raiding  the  crops  at  night,  and  their  inroads 
often  do  serious  damage.  In  this  neighborhood  their  habit 
is  to  live  high  up  in  the  mountains,  in  the  bamboos,  while 
the  weather  is  dry;  the  cows  and  calves  keeping  closer  to  the 
bamboos  than  the  bulls.  A  spell  of  wet  weather,  such  as 
we  had  fortunately  been  having,  drives  them  down  in  the 
dense   forest   which   covers   the   lower   slopes.     Here   they 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  283 

may  either  pass  all  their  time,  or  at  night  they  may  go  still 
further  down,  into  the  open  valley  where  the  shambas  lie; 
or  they  may  occasionally  still  do  what  they  habitually  did 
in  the  days  before  the  white  hunters  came,  and  wander  far 
away,  making  migrations  that  are  sometimes  seasonal,  and 
sometimes  irregular  and  unaccountable. 

No  other  animal,  not  the  lion  himself,  is  so  constant  a 
theme  of  talk,  and  a  subject  of  such  unflagging  interest 
round  the  camp-fires  of  African  hunters  and  in  the  native 
villages  of  the  African  wilderness^  as  the  elephant.  Indeed 
the  elephant  has  always  profoundly  impressed  the  imagi- 
nation of  mankind.  It  is,  not  only  to  hunters,  but  to  natu- 
ralists, and  to  all  people  who  possess  any  curiosity  about 
wild  creatures  and  the  wild  life  of  nature,  the  most  in- 
teresting of  all  animals.  Its  huge  bulk,  its  singular  form, 
the  value  of  its  ivory,  its  great  intelligence — in  which  it  is 
only  matched,  if  at  all,  by  the  highest  apes,  and  possibly  by 
one  or  two  of  the  highest  carnivores — and  its  varied  habits, 
all  combine  to  give  it  an  interest  such  as  attaches  to  no 
other  living  creature  below  the  rank  of  man.  In  line  of 
descent  and  in  physical  formation  it  stands  by  itself, 
wholly  apart  from  all  the  other  great  land  beasts,  and 
differing  from  them  even  more  widely  than  they  differ 
from  one  another.  The  two  existing  species — the  African, 
which  is  the  larger  and  finer  animal,  and  the  Asiatic — 
differ  from  one  another  as  much  as  they  do  from  the 
mammoth  and  similar  extinct  forms  which  were  the  con- 
temporaries of  early  man  in  Europe  and  North  America. 
The  carvings  of  our  palaeolithic  forefathers,  etched  on 
bone  by  cavern  dwellers,  from  whom  we  are  sundered  by 
ages  which  stretch  into  an  immemorial  past,  show  that  in 
their  lives  the  hairy  elephant  of  the  north  played  the  same 
part  that  his  remote  collateral  descendant  now  plays  in  the 
lives  of  the  savages  who  dwell  under  a  vertical  sun  beside 
the  tepid  waters  of  the  Nile  and  the  Congo. 

In  the  first  dav/n  of  history,  the  sculptured  records  of 
the  kings  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Nineveh  show  the  immense 


284  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

importance  which  attached  in  the  eyes  of  the  mightiest 
monarchs  of  the  then  world  to  the  chase  and  the  trophies 
of  this  great  strange  .beast.  The  ancient  civihzation  of 
India  boasts  as  one  of  its  achievements  the  taming  of  the 
elephant;  and  in  the  ancient  lore  of  that  civilization  the 
elephant  plays  a  distinguished  part. 

The  elephant  is  unique  among  the  beasts  of  great  bulk 
in  the  fact  that  his  growth  in  size  has  been  accompanied  by 
growth  in  brain  power.  With  other  beasts  growth  in  bulk 
of  body  has  not  been  accompanied  by  similar  growth  of 
mind.  Indeed  sometimes  there  seems  to  have  been  mental 
retrogression.  The  rhinoceros,  in  several  different  forms, 
is  found  in  the  same  regions  as  the  elephant,  and  in  one  of 
its  forms  it  is  in  point  of  size  second  only  to  the  elephant 
among  terrestrial  animals.  Seemingly  the  ancestors  of  the 
two  creatures,  in  that  period,  separated  from  us  by  un- 
counted hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  which  we  may  con- 
veniently designate  as  late  miocene  or  early  pliocene,  were 
substantially  equal  in  brain  development.  But  in  one  case 
increase  in  bulk  seems  to  have  induced  lethargy  and  atrophy 
of  brain  power,  while  in  the  other  case  brain  and  body  have 
both  grown.  At  any  rate  the  elephant  is  now  one  of  the 
wisest  and  the  rhinoceros  one  of  the  stupidest  of  big  mam- 
mals. In  consequence  the  elephant  outlasts  the  rhino, 
although  he  is  the  largest,  carries  infinitely  more  valuable 
spoils,  and  is  far  more  eagerly  and  persistently  hunted. 
Both  animals  wandered  freely  over  the  open  country  of  East 
Africa  thirty  years  ago.  But  the  elephant  learns  by  ex- 
perience infinitely  more  readily  than  the  rhinoceros.  As  a 
rule,  the  former  no  longer  lives  in  the  open  plains,  and  in 
many  places  now  even  crosses  them  if  possible  only  at  night. 
But  those  rhinoceros  which  formerly  dwelt  in  the  plains  for 
the  most  part  continued  to  dwell  there  until  killed  out.  So 
it  is  at  the  present  day.  Not  the  most  foolish  elephant  would 
under  similar  conditions  behave  as  the  rhinos  that  we  studied 
and  hunted  by  Kilimakiu  and  in  the  Sotik  behaved.  No 
elephant,  in  regions  where  they  have  been  much  persecuted 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


285 


by  hunters,  would  habitually  spend  its  days  lying  or  standing 
in  the  open  plain;  nor  would  it,  in  such  places,  repeatedly, 
and  in  fact  uniformly,  permit  men  to  walk  boldly  up  to  it 
without  heeding  them  until  in  its  immediate  neighborhood. 
The  elephant's  sight  is  bad,  as  is  that  of  the  rhinoceros; 
but  a  comparatively  brief  experience  with  rifle-bearing  man 


West  side  of  Kenia's  peak,  taken  at  an  altitude  of  15,000  feet 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alden  Loriug 


usually  makes  the  former  take  refuge  in  regions  where 
scent  and  hearing  count  for  more  than  sight;  while  no  ex- 
perience has  any  such  effect  on  the  rhino.  The  rhinos  that 
now  live  in  the  bush  are  the  descendants  of  those  which 
always  lived  in  the  bush;  and  it  is  in  the  bush  that  the 
species  will  linger  long  after  it  has  vanished  from  the  open; 
and  it  is  in  the  bush  that  it  is  most  formidable. 

Elephant  and  rhino  differ  as  much  in  their  habits  as  in 
their  intelligence.     The  former  is  very  gregarious,  herds  of 


214  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

We  sent  a  porter  to  bring  out  Heller,  and  an  ox  wagon 
on  which  to  take  the  skin  to  camp.  While  waiting  for  them 
I  killed  a  topi  bull,  at  two  hundred  and  sixty  yards,  with  one 
bullet,  and  a  wildebeest  bull  with  a  dozen;  I  crippled  him 
with  my  first  shot  at  three  hundred  and  sixty  yards,  and 
then  walked  and  trotted  after  him  a  couple  of  miles,  getting 
running  and  standing  shots  at  from  three  hundred  to  five 
hundred  yards.  I  hit  him  several  times.  As  with  every- 
thing else  I  shot,  the  topi  and  wildebeest  were  preserved 
as  specimens  for  the  museum,  and  their  flesh  used  for  food. 
Our  porters  had  much  to  do,  and  they  did  it  well,  partly 
because  they  were  fed  well.  We  killed  no  game  of  which  we 
did  not  make  the  fullest  use.  It  would  be  hard  to  convey  to 
those  who  have  not  seen  it  on  the  ground  an  accurate  idea  of 
its  abundance.  When  I  was  walking  up  to  this  rhino  there 
were  in  sight  two  giraffes,  several  wildebeest  bulls,  and  herds 
of  hartebeest,  topi,  zebra,  and  the  big  and  little  gazelles. 

In  addition  to  being  a  mighty  hunter,  and  an  adept  in 
the  by  no  means  easy  work  of  handling  a  large  safari  in 
the  wilderness,  Cuninghame  was  also  a  good  field  naturalist 
and  taxidermist;  and  at  this  camp  we  got  so  many  speci- 
mens that  he  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  his  time  helping 
Heller;  and  they  pressed  into  the  work  at  times  even  Tarl- 
ton.  Accordingly  Kermit  and  I  generally  went  off  by  our- 
selves, either  together  or  separately.  Once,  however,  Kermit 
went  with  Tarlton,  and  was  as  usual  lucky  with  cheetahs, 
killing  two.  Tarlton  was  an  accomplished  elephant,  buf- 
falo, and  rhino  hunter,  but  he  preferred  the  chase  of  the  lion 
to  all  other  kinds  of  sport;  and  if  lions  were  not  to  be  found 
he  liked  to  follow  anything  else  he  could  gallop  on  horse- 
back. Kermit  was  also  a  good  and  hard  rider.  On  this 
occasion  they  found  a  herd  of  eland,  and  galloped  into  it. 
The  big  bull  they  overhauled  at  once,  but  saw  that  his 
horns  were  poor  and  left  him.  Then  they  followed  a  fine 
cow  with  an  unusually  good  head.  She  started  at  a  rattling 
pace,  and  once  leaped  clear  over  another  cow  that  got  in 
her  way;   but  they  rode  into  her  after  a  mile's  smart  gallop 


HUNTING   IN  THE  SOTIK  215 

— not  a  racing  gallop  by  any  means — and  after  that  she 
was  as  manageable  as  a  tame  ox.  Cantering  and  trotting 
within  thirty  yards  of  her  on  either  quarter  they  drove 
her  toward  camp;  but  when  it  was  still  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  distant  they  put  up  a  cheetah,  and  tore  after  it;  and 
they  overtook  and  killed  it  just  before  it  reached  cover.  A 
cheetah  with  a  good  start  can  only  be  overtaken  by  hard 
running.  This  one  behaved  just  as  did  the  others  they 
ran  down.  For  quarter  of  a  mile  no  animal  in  the  world 
has  a  cheetah's  speed;  but  he  cannot  last.  When  chased 
the  cheetahs  did  not  sprint,  but  contented  themselves  with 
galloping  ahead  of  the  horses;  at  first  they  could  easily 
keep  their  distance,  but  after  a  mile  or  two  their  strength 
and  wind  gave  out,  and  then  they  always  crouched  flat  to 
the  earth,  and  were  shot  without  their  making  any  attempt  to 
charge.  But  a  wart-hog  boar  which  Kermit  ran  down  the 
same  day  and  shot  with  his  revolver  did  charge,  and  wickedly. 
While  running  one  of  his  cheetahs  Kermit  put  up  two 
old  wildebeest  bulls,  and  they  joined  in  the  procession, 
looking  as  if  they  too  were  pursuing  the  cheetah;  the  chee- 
tah ran  first,  the  two  bulls,  bounding  and  switching  their 
tails,  came  next,  and  Kermit,  racing  in  the  rear,  gained 
steadily.  Wildebeest  are  the  oddest  in  nature  and  conduct, 
and  in  many  ways  the  most  interesting,  of  all  antelopes. 
There  is  in  their  temper  something  queer,  fiery,  eccentric, 
and  their  actions  are  abrupt  and  violent.  A  single  bull  will 
stand  motionless  with  head  raised  to  stare  at  an  intruder 
until  the  latter  is  quarter  of  a  mile  off;  then  down  goes  his 
head,  his  tail  is  lashed  up  and  around,  and  off  he  gallops, 
plunging,  kicking,  and  shaking  his  head.  He  may  go 
straight  away,  he  may  circle  round,  or  even  approach  nearer 
to,  the  intruder;  and  then  he  halts  again  to  stare  motion- 
less, and  perhaps  to  utter  his  grunt  of  alarm  and  defiance. 
A  herd  when  approached,  after  fixed  staring  will  move  off, 
♦  perhaps  at  a  canter.  Soon  the  leaders  make  a  half  wheel, 
and  lead  their  followers  in  a  semicircle;  suddenly  a  couple 
of  old  bulls  leave  the  rest,  and  at  a  tearing  gallop  describe  a 


288 


AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 


up  in  time,  and  there  is  at  present  no  danger  of  the  exter- 
mination of  the  lord  of  all  four-footed  creatures.  Large 
reserves  have  been  established  on  which  various  herds  of 

elephants  now 
live  what  is,  at 
least  for  the  time 
being,  an  entire- 
ly safe  life.  Fur- 
thermore, over 
great  tracts  of 
territory  outside 
the  reserves  reg- 
ulations have 
been  promul- 
gated which,  if 
enforced  as  they 
are  now  en- 
forced, will  pre- 
vent any  exces- 
sive diminution 
of  the  herds. 
In  British  East 
Africa,  for  in- 
stance, no  cows 
are  allowed  to 
be  shot  save 
for  special  pur- 
poses,  as  for 
preservation  in 
a  museum,  or  to 
safeguard  life 
and  property; 
and  no  bulls 
with  tusks  weighing  less  than  thirty  pounds  apiece.  This 
renders  safe  almost  all  the  females  and  an  ample  supply  of 
breeding  males.  Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  the 
governments  and  the  individuals  who  have  brought  about 


Falls  on  slope  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


28D 


this  happy  resuh;  the  credit  belongs  especially  to  England 
and  to  various  Englishmen.  It  would  be  a  veritable  and 
most  tragic  calamity  if  the  lordly  elephant,  the  giant 
among  existing  four- 
footed  creatures,  should  ^^ffii^  j] 
be  permitted  to  vanish 
from  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

But  of  course  pro- 
tection is  not  perma- 
nently possible  over  the 
greater  part  of  that 
country  which  is  well 
fitted  for  settlement  ; 
nor  anywhere,  if  the 
herds  grow  too  numer- 
ous. It  would  be  not 
merely  silly,  but  worse 
than  silly,  to  try  to  stop 
all  killing  of  elephants. 
The  unchecked  increase 
of  any  big  and  formi- 
dable wild  beast,  even 
though  not  a  flesh-eater, 
is  incompatible  with  the 
existence  of  man  when 
he  has  emerged  from 
the  stage  of  lowest  sav- 
agery. This  is  not  a  matter  of  theory,  but  of  proved  fact. 
In  place  after  place  in  Africa  where  protection  has  been  ex- 
tended to  hippopotamus  or  buffalo,  rhinoceros  or  elephant, 
it  has  been  found  necessary  to  withdraw  it  because  the  pro- 
tected animals  did  such  damage  to  property,  or  became  such 
menaces  to  human  life.  Among  all  four  species  cows  with 
calves  often  attack  men  without  provocation,  and  old  bulls 
are  at  any  time  likely  to  become  infected  by  a  spirit  of 
wanton  and  ferocious  mischief  and  apt  to  become  man- 

19 


Elephant  trail  in  bamboo 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alden  Loring 


290  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

killers.  I  know  settlers  who  tried  to  preserve  the  rhinoceros 
which  they  found  living  on  their  big  farms,  and  who  were 
obliged  to  abandon  the  attempt,  and  themselves  to  kill  the 
rhinos  because  of  repeated  and  wanton  attacks  on  human 
beings  by  the  latter.  Where  we  were  by  Neri,  a  year  or  two 
before  our  visit,  the  rhinos  had  become  so  dangerous^  killing 
one  white  man  and  several  natives,  that  the  district  com- 
missioner who  preceded  Mr.  Browne  was  forced  to  under- 
take a  crusade  against  them,  killing  fifteen.  Both  in  South 
Africa  and  on  the  Nile  protection  extended  to  hippopota- 
mus has  in  places  been  wholly  withdrawn  because  of  the 
damage  done  by  the  beasts  to  the  crops  of  the  natives,  or 
because  of  their  unprovoked  assaults  on  canoes  and  boats. 
In  one  instance  a  last  surviving  hippo  was  protected  for 
years^  but  finally  grew  bold  because  of  immunity,  killed  a 
boy  in  sheer  wantonness,  and  had  to  be  him.self  slain.  In 
Uganda  the  buffalo  were  for  years  protected,  and  grew  so 
bold,  killed  so  m.any  natives,  and  ruined  so  m.any  villages, 
that  they  are  now  classed  as  vermin  and  their  destruction 
in  every  way  encouraged.  In  the  very  neighborhood  where 
I  was  hunting  at  Kenia,  but  six  weeks  before  my  coming, 
a  cow  buffalo  had  wandered  down  into  the  plains  and  run 
amuck,  had  attacked  two  villages,  had  killed  a  man  and 
a  boy,  and  had  then  been  mobbed  to  death  by  the  spear- 
men. Elephant,  when  in  numbers,  and  when  not  possessed 
of  the  fear  of  man,  are  more  impossible  neighbors  than 
hippo,  rhino,  or  buffalo  ;  but  they  are  so  eagerly  sought 
after  by  ivory  hunters  that  it  is  only  rarely  that  they  get 
the  chance  to  become  really  dangerous  to  life,  although  in 
many  places  their  ravages  among  the  crops  are  severely 
felt  by  the  unfortunate  natives  who  live  near  them. 

The  chase  of  the  elephant,  if  persistently  followed,  en- 
tails more  fatigue  and  hardship  than  any  other  kind  of 
African  hunting.  As  regards  risk,  it  is  hard  to  say  whether 
it  is  more  or  less  dangerous  than  the  chase  of  the  lion  and 
the  buffalo.  Both  Cuninghame  and  Tarlton,  men  of  wide 
experience,  ranked  elephant  hunting,  in  point  of  danger, 


^  mummmiii^^ 

-— : : TFT- 

.  ^^^^^V^^BA  H 

"i  ^"^^'  .' 

^^^^^H^B^pi^;  ;  '^'ll^  "^^fc          ^^^■E^BMhw^^^SI 

^^-^L             '  ' 

^^H^Bl^'^SimLrl  V^^Sfi^^ 

■^      ^^^: 

^^^^^^^^I^IHRBV  J«£jfll^^^^^^^^^B^tL*^  j^'.^^^^^VnH^^^SH 

^           •  .     ^^I^^''- 

'■■■  ■•        -^Sn^^ 

X.-'^A-r.-/;:.       ^ 

/              1 

Camping  after  death  of  the  first  bull 


The  porters  exult  over  the  death  of  the  bull 
From  photographs  by  Edmund  Heller 


292  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

as  nearly  on  the  level  with  lion  hunting,  and  as  more  dan- 
gerous than  buffalo  hunting;  and  all  three  kinds  as  far 
more  dangerous  than  the  chase  of  the  rhino.  Personally,  I 
believe  the  actual  conflict  with  a  lion,  where  the  conditions 
are  the  same,  to  be  normally  the  more  dangerous  sport; 
though  far  greater  demands  are  made  by  elephant  hunting 
on  the  qualities  of  personal  endurance  and  hardihood  and 
resolute  perseverance  in  the  face  of  disappointment  and 
difficulty.  Buffalo,  seemingly,  do  not  charge  as  freely  as 
elephant,  but  are  more  dangerous  when  they  do  charge. 
Rhino  when  hunted,  though  at  times  ugly  customers,  seem 
to  me  certainly  less  dangerous  than  the  other  three;  but 
from  sheer  stupid  truculence  they  are  themselves  apt  to  take 
the  offensive  in  unexpected  fashion,  being  far  more  prone 
to  such  aggression  than  are  any  of  the  others — man-eating 
lions  always  excepted. 

Very  few  of  the  native  tribes  in  Africa  hunt  the  elephant 
systematically.  But  the  'Ndorobo,  the  wild  bush  people  of 
East  Africa,  sometimes  catch  young  elephants  in  the  pits 
they  dig  with  slow  labor,  and  very  rarely  they  kill  one  with 
a  kind  of  harpoon.  The  'Ndorobo  are  doubtless  in  part  de- 
scended from  some  primitive  bush  people,  but  in  part  also 
derive  their  blood  from  the  more  advanced  tribes  near  which 
their  wandering  families  happen  to  live;  and  they  grade 
into  the  latter,  by  speech  and  through  individuals  who  seem 
to  stand  half-way  between.  Thus  we  had  with  us  two  Masai 
'Ndorobo,  true  wild  people,  who  spoke  a  bastard  Masai; 
who  had  formerly  hunted  with  Cuninghame,  and  who  came 
to  us  because  of  their  ancient  friendship  with  him.  These 
shy  woods  creatures  were  afraid  to  come  to  Neri  by  day- 
light, when  we  were  camped  there,  but  after  dark  crept  to 
Cuninghame's  tent.  Cuninghame  gave  them  two  fine  red 
blankets,  and  put  them  to  sleep  in  a  little  tent,  keeping 
their  spears  in  his  own  tent,  as  a  measure  of  precaution 
to  prevent  their  running  away.  The  elder  of  the  two,  he 
informed  me,  would  certainly  have  a  fit  of  hysterics  when 
we  killed  our  elephant!     Cuninghame  was  also  joined  by 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


293 


Other  old  friends  of  former  hunts,  Kikuyu  'Ndorobo  these, 
who  spoke  Kikuyu  hke  the  people  who  cultivated  the  fields 
that  covered  the  river-bottoms  and  hill-sides  of  the  adjoin- 
ing open  country,  and  who  were,  indeed,  merely  outlying, 
forest-dwelling  members  of  the  lowland  tribes.  In  the  deep 
woods  we  met  one  old  Dorobo,  who  had  no  connection  with 
any  more  advanced  tribe,  whose  sole 
belongings  were  his  spear,  skin  cloak, 
and  fire  stick,  and  who  lived  purely  on 
honey  and  game;  unlike  the  bastard 
'Ndorobo,  he  was  ornamented  with 
neither  paint  nor  grease.  But  the  'Ndo- 
robo who  were  our  guides  stood  farther 
up  in  the  social  scale.  The  men  passed 
most  of  their  time  in  the  forest,  but  up 
the  mountain  sides  they  had  squalid 
huts  on  little  clearings,  with  shambas, 
where  their  wives  raised  scanty  crops. 
To  the  'Ndorobo,  and  to  them  alone, 
the  vast,  thick  forest  was  an  open  book; 
without  their  aid  as  guides  both  Cun- 
inghame  and  our  own  gun-bearers  were 
at  fault,  and  found  their  way  around 
with  great  difficulty  and  slowness. 
The  bush  people  had  nothing  in  the 
way  of  clothing  save  a  blanket  over 
the  shoulders,  but  wore  the  usual 
paint  and  grease  and  ornaments;  each 
carried  a  spear  which  might  have  a 
long  and  narrow,  or  short  and  broad  blade;  two  of  them 
wore  head-dresses  of  tripe — skull-caps  made  from  the  inside 
of  a  sheep's  stomach. 

For  two  days  after  reaching  our  camp  in  the  open  glade 
on  the  mountain  side  it  rained.  We  were  glad  of  this, 
because  it  meant  that  the  elephants  would  not  be  in  the 
bamboos,  and  Cuninghame  and  the  'Ndorobo  went  off  to 
hunt  for  fresh  signs.     Cuninghame  is  as  skilful  an  elephant 


J-JV 


The  'Ndorobo  who  had  hys- 
terics on  the  elephant 

From  a  photograph  by  Edmund 
Heller 


294  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS    " 

hunter  as  can  be  found  in  Africa,  and  is  one  of  the  very- 
few  white  men  able  to  help  even  the  wild  bushmen  at  their 
work.  By  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  they  were  fairly 
well  satisfied  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  quarry. 

The  following  morning  a  fine  rain  was  still  falling  when 
Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  I  started  on  our  hunt;  but  by 
noon  it  had  stopped.  Of  course  we  went  in  single  file  and 
on  foot;  not  even  a  bear  hunter  from  the  cane-brakes  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  could  ride  through  that  forest.  We  left 
our  home  camp  standing,  taking  blankets  and  a  coat  and 
change  of  underclothing  for  each  of  us,  and  two  small 
Whymper  tents,  with  enough  food  for  three  days;  I  also 
took  my  wash  kit  and  a  book  from  the  Pigskin  Library. 
First  marched  the  'Ndorobo  guides,  each  with  his  spear, 
his  blanket  round  his  shoulders,  and  a  little  bundle  of  corn 
and  sweet-potato.  Then  came  Cuninghame,  followed  by 
his  gun-bearer.  Then  I  came,  clad  in  khaki-colored  flannel 
shirt  and  khaki  trousers  buttoning  down  the  legs,  with 
hobnailed  shoes  and  a  thick  slouch  hat;  I  had  intended  to 
wear  rubber-soled  shoes,  but  the  soaked  ground  was  too 
slippery.  My  two  gun-bearers  followed,  carrying  the  Hol- 
land and  the  Springfield.  Then  came  Heller,  at  the  head 
of  a  dozen  porters  and  skinners;  he  and  they  were  to  fall 
behind  when  we  actually  struck  fresh  elephant  spoor,  but  to 
follow  our  trail  by  the  help  of  a  Dorobo  who  was  left  with 
them. 

For  three  hours  our  route  lay  along  the  edge  of  the 
woods.  We  climbed  into  and  out  of  deep  ravines  in  which 
groves  of  tree-ferns  clustered.  We  waded  through  streams 
of  swift  water,  whose  course  was  broken  by  cataract  and 
rapid.  We  passed  through  shambas,  and  by  the  doors  of 
little  hamlets  of  thatched  beehive  huts.  We  met  flocks  of 
goats  and  hairy,  fat-tailed  sheep  guarded  by  boys;  strings 
of  burden-bearing  women  stood  meekly  to  one  side  to  let 
us  pass;  parties  of  young  men  sauntered  by,  spear  in  hand. 

Then  we  struck  into  the  great  forest,  and  in  an  instant 
the  sun  was  shut  from  sight  by  the  thick  screen  of  wet 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  295 

foliage.  It  was  a  riot  of  twisted  vines,  interlacing  the  trees 
and  bushes.  Only  the  elephant  paths,  which,  of  every  age, 
crossed  and  recrossed  it  hither  and  thither,  made  it  pas- 
sable. One  of  the  chief  difficulties  in  hunting  elephants  In 
the  forest  Is  that  It  Is  Impossible  to  travel,  except  very  slowly 
and  with  much  noise,  off  these  trails,  so  that  It  Is  some- 
times very  difficult  to  take  advantage  of  the  wind;  and 
although  the  sight  of  the  elephant  is  dull,  both  its  sense  of 
hearing  and  its  sense  of  smell  are  exceedingly  acute. 

Hour  after  hour  we  worked  our  way  onward  through 
tangled  forest  and  matted  jungle.  There  was  little  sign 
of  bird  or  animal  life.  A  troop  of  long-haired  black-and- 
white  monkeys  bounded  away  among  the  tree  tops.  Here 
and  there  brilliant  flowers  lightened  the  gloom.  We  ducked 
under  vines  and  climbed  over  fallen  timber.  Poisonous 
nettles  stung  our  hands.  We  were  drenched  by  the  wet 
boughs  which  we  brushed  aside.  Mosses  and  ferns  grew 
rank  and  close.  The  trees  were  of  strange  kinds.  There 
were  huge  trees  with  little  leaves,  and  small  trees  with 
big  leaves.  There  were  trees  with  bare,  fleshy  limbs,  that 
writhed  out  through  the  neighboring  branches,  bearing 
sparse  clusters  of  large  frondage.  In  places  the  forest 
was  low,  the  trees  thirty  or  forty  feet  high,  the  bushes  that 
choked  the  ground  between,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  high.  In 
other  places  mighty  monarchs  of  the  wood,  straight  and 
tall,  towered  aloft  to  an  immense  height;  among  them  were 
trees  whose  smooth,  round  boles  were  spotted  like  syca- 
mores, while  far  above  our  heads  their  gracefully  spreading 
branches  were  hung  with  vines  like  mistletoe  and  draped 
with  Spanish  moss;  trees  whose  surfaces  were  corrugated 
and  knotted  as  if  they  were  made  of  bundles  of  great 
creepers;  and  giants  whose  buttressed  trunks  were  four 
times  a  man's  length  across. 

Twice  we  got  on  elephant  spoor,  once  of  a  single  bull, 
once  of  a  party  of  three.  Then  Cuninghame  and  the 
'Ndorobo  redoubled  their  caution.  They  would  minutely 
examine  the  fresh  dung;  and  above  all  they  continually 


296 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


tested  the  wind,  scanning  the  tree  tops,  and  hghting  matches 

to  see  from  the  smoke  what  the  eddies  were  near  the  ground. 

Each  time  after  an  hour's  steahhy  stepping  and 

crawhng  along  the  twisted  trail  a  slight  shift  of 

the  wind  in  the  almost  still  air  gave  our  scent  to 

the   game,  and   away  it  went  before  we  could 

catch  a  glimpse  of  it;  and  we  resumed  our  walk. 

The   elephant  paths   led   up  hill  and 

-,;  down — for   the   beasts   are   wonderful 

climbers — and   wound  in  and   out   in 

every   direction.     They  were    marked 

by  broken  branches  and  the  splintered 

and   shattered   trunks   of  the   smaller 

trees,    especially    where    the    elephant 

had  stood  and  fed,  trampling  down  the 

bushes  for  many  yards  around.    Where 

they   had    crossed  the   marshy  valleys 

they   had    punched    big   round    holes, 

three  feet  deep,  in  the  sticky  mud. 

As  evening  fell  we  pitched  camp  by 
the  side  of  a  little  brook  at  the  bottom 
of  a  ravine,  and  dined  ravenously  on 
bread,  mutton,  and  tea.  The  air 
was  keen,  and  under  our  blankets 
we  slept  in  comfort  until  dawn. 
Breakfast  was  soon  over  and  camp 
struck;  and  once  more  we  began 
our  cautious  progress  through  the 
dim,  cool  archways  of  the  moun- 
tain forest. 

Two  hours  after  leaving  camp  we  came  across  the  fresh 
trail  of  a  small  herd  of  perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  elephant 
cows  and  calves,  but  including  two  big  herd  bulls.  At 
once  we  took  up  the  trail.  Cuninghame  and  his  bush 
people  consulted  again  and  again,  scanning  every  track 
and  mark  with  minute  attention.  The  sign  showed  that 
the  elephants  had  fed  in  the  shambas  early  in  the  night, 


The  chief  who  acied  as  guide 
through  shambas  country 
near  first  elephant  camp 

From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


ELEPHANT   HUNTING  297 

had  then  returned  to  the  mountain,  and  stood  in  one  place 
resting  for  several  hours,  and  had  left  this  sleeping  ground 
some  time  before  we  reached  it.  After  we  had  followed  the 
trail  a  short  while  we  made  the  experiment  of  trying  to 
force  our  own  way  through  the  jungle,  so  as  to  get  the  wind 
more  favorable;  but  our  progress  was  too  slow  and  noisy, 
and  we  returned  to  the  path  the  elephants  had  beaten. 
Then  the  'Ndorobo  went  ahead,  travelling  noiselessly  and  at 
speed.  One  of  them  was  clad  in  a  white  blanket,  and  an- 
other in  a  red  one,  which  were  conspicuous;  but  they 
were  too  silent  and  cautious  to  let  the  beasts  see  them, 
and  could  tell  exactly  where  they  were  and  what  they  were 
doing  by  the  sounds.  When  these  trackers  waited  for  us 
they  would  appear  before  us  like  ghosts;  once  one  of  them 
dropped  down  from  the  branches  above,  having  climbed  a 
tree  with  monkey-like  agility  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  great 
game. 

At  last  we  could  hear  the  elephants,  and  under  Cuning- 
hame's  lead  we  walked  more  cautiously  than  ever.  The 
wind  was  right,  and  the  trail  of  one  elephant  led  close  along- 
side that  of  the  rest  of  the  herd,  and  parallel  thereto.  It 
was  about  noon.  The  elephants  moved  slowly,  and  we 
listened  to  the  boughs  crack,  and  now  and  then  to  the 
curious  internal  rumblings  of  the  great  beasts.  Carefully, 
every  sense  on  the  alert,  we  kept  pace  with  them.  My 
double-barrel  was  in  my  hands,  and  wherever  possible,  as 
I  followed  the  trail,  I  stepped  in  the  huge  footprints  of  the 
elephant,  for  where  such  a  weight  had  pressed  there  were 
no  sticks  left  to  crack  under  my  feet.  It  made  our  veins 
thrill  thus  for  half  an  hour  to  creep  stealthily  along,  but  a 
few  rods  from  the  herd,  never  able  to  see  it,  because  of  the 
extreme  denseness  of  the  cover,  but  always  hearing  first  one 
and  then  another  of-  its  members,  and  always  trying  to 
guess  what  each  one  might  do,  and  keeping  ceaselessly 
ready  for  whatever  might  befall.  A  flock  of  hornbills  flew 
up  with  noisy  clamor,  but  the  elephants  did  not  heed 
them. 


298  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

At  last  we  came  in  sight  of  the  mighty  game.  The  trail 
took  a  twist  to  one  side,  and  there,  thirty  yards  in  front  of 
us^  we  made  out  part  of  the  gray  and  massive  head  of  an 
elephant  resting  his  tusks  on  the  branches  of  a  young  tree. 
A  couple  of  minutes  passed  before,  by  cautious  scrutiny^  we 
were  able  to  tell  whether  the  animal  was  a  cow  or  a  bull, 
and  whether,  if  a  bull,  it  carried  heavy  enough  tusks.  Then 
we  saw  that  it  was  a  big  bull  with  good  ivory.  It  turned 
its  head  in  my  direction  and  I  saw  its  eye;  and  I  fired  a 
little  to  one  side  of  the  eye,  at  a  spot  which  I  thought  would 
lead  to  the  brain.  I  struck  exactly  where  I  aimed,  but  the 
head  of  an  elephant  is  enormous  and  the  brain  small,  and 
the  bullet  missed  it.  However,  the  shock  momentarily 
stunned  the  beast.  He  stumbled  forward,  half  falling,  and 
as  he  recovered  I  fired  with  the  second  barrel,  again  aiming 
for  the  brain.  This  time  the  bullet  sped  true,  and  as  I 
lowered  the  rifle  from  my  shoulder,  I  saw  the  great  lord  of 
the  forest  come  crashing  to  the  ground. 

But  at  that  very  instant,  before  there  was  a  moment's 
time  in  which  to  reload,  the  thick  bushes  parted  immedi- 
ately on  my  left  front,  and  through  them  surged  the  vast 
bulk  of  a  charging  bull  elephant,  the  matted  mass  of  tough 
creepers  snapping  like  packthread  before  his  rush.  He  was 
so  close  that  he  could  have  touched  me  with  his  trunk. 
I  leaped  to  one  side  and  dodged  behind  a  tree  trunk, 
opening  the  rifle,  throwing  out  the  empty  shells,  and  slipping 
in  two  cartridges.  Meanwhile  Cuninghame  fired  right  and 
left,  at  the  same  time  throwing  himself  into  the  bushes  on 
the  other  side.  Both  his  bullets  went  home,  and  the  bull 
stopped  short  in  his  charge,  wheeled,  and  immediately 
disappeared  in  the  thick  cover.  We  ran  forward,  but  the 
forest  had  closed  over  his  wake.  We  heard  him  trumpet 
shrilly,  and  then  all  sounds  ceased. 

The  'Ndorobo,  who  had  quite  properly  disappeared 
when  this  second  bull  charged,  now  went  forward  and  soon 
returned  with  the  report  that  he  had  fled  at  speed,  but  was 
evidently  hard  hit,  as  there  was  much  blood  on  the  spoor. 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


299 


If  we  had  been  only  after  ivory  we  should  have  followed 
him  at  once;  but  there  was  no  telling  how  long  a  chase  he 
might  lead  us;  and  as  we  desired  to  save  the  skin  of  the 
dead  elephant  entire,  there  was  no  time  whatever  to  spare. 
It  is  a  formidable  task, 
occupying  many  days, 
to  preserve  an  elephant 
for  mounting  in  a  mu- 
seum, and  if  the  skin  is 
to  be  properly  saved,  it 
must  be  taken  off  with- 
out an  hour's  unneces- 
sary delay. 

So  back  we  turned 
to  where  the  dead 
tusker  lay,  and  I  felt 
proud  indeed  as  I  stood 
by  the  immense  bulk 
of  the  slain  monster 
and  put  my  hand  on 
the  ivory.  The  tusks 
weighed  a  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds  the  pair. 
There  was  the  usual 
scene  of  joyful  excite- 
ment among  the  gun- 
bearers — who  had  be- 
haved excellently — and 
among  the  wild  bush 
people   who  had   done 

the  tracking  for  us;  and,  as  Cuninghame  had  predicted, 
the  old  Masai  Dorobo,  from  pure  delight,  proceeded  to 
have  hysterics  on  the  body  of  the  dead  elephant.  The 
scene  was  repeated  when  Heller  and  the  porters  appeared 
half  an  hour  later.  Then,  chattering  like  monkeys,  and  as 
happy  as  possible,  all,  porters,  gun-bearers,  and  'Ndorobo 
alike,  began  the  work   of  skinning   and   cutting    up    the 


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Tree-ferns  on  slopes  of  Kenia  near  first 

elephant  camp 

From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


300 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


quarry,  under  the  leadership  and  supervision  of  Heller  and 
Cuninghame,  and  soon  they  were  all   splashed  with   blood 

from  head  to  foot.  One  of  the 
trackers  took  off  his  blanket  and 
squatted  stark  naked  inside  the  car- 
cass the  better  to  use  his  knife. 
Each  laborer  rewarded  himself  by 
cutting  off  strips  of  meat  for  his  pri- 
vate store,  and  hung  them  in  red 
festoons  from  the  branches  round 
about.  There  was  no  let  up  in  the 
work  until  it  was  stopped  by  darkness. 
Our  tents  were  pitched  in  a 
small  open  glade  a  hundred  yards 
from  the  dead  elephant.  The  night 
was  clear,  the  stars  shone  brightly, 
and  in  the  west  the  young  moon 
hung  just  above  the  line  of  tall  tree 
tops.  Fires  were  speedily  kindled 
and  the  men  sat  around  them,  feast- 
ing and  singing  in  a  strange 
minor  tone  until  late  in  the 
night.  The  flickering  light 
left  them  at  one  moment 
in  black  obscurity,  and  the 
next  brought  into  bold  re- 
lief their  sinewy  crouching 
figures,  their  dark  faces, 
gleaming  eyes,  and  flashing  teeth.  When  they  did  sleep, 
two  of  the  'Ndorobo  slept  so  close  to  the  fire  as  to  burn 
themselves;  an  accident  to  which  they  are  prone,  judging 
from  the  many  scars  of  old  burns  on  their  legs.  I  toasted 
slices  of  elephant's  heart  on  a  pronged  stick  before  the  fire, 
and  found  it  delicious;  for  I  was  hungry,  and  the  night 
was  cold.  We  talked  of  our  success  and  exulted  over  it, 
and  made  our  plans  for  the  morrow;  and  then  we  turned 
in  under  our  blankets  for  another  night's  sleep. 


Suliman  Na  Meru,  one  of  the  elephant 

guides 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  301 

Next  morning  some  of  the  'Ndorobo  went  off  on  the  trail 
of  Cuninghame's  elephant  to  see  if  it  had  fallen,  but  found 
that  it  had  travelled  steadily,  though  its  wounds  were 
probably  mortal.  There  was  no  object  in  my  staying,  for 
Heller  and  Cuninghame  would  be  busy  for  the  next  ten 
days,  and  would  ultimately  have  to  use  all  the  porters  in 
taking  off  and  curing  the  skin,  and  transporting  it  to  Neri; 
so  I  made  up  my  mind  to  go  down  to  the  plains  for  a  hunt 
by  myself.  Taking  one  porter  to  carry  my  bedding,  and 
with  my  gun-bearers,  and  a  Dorobo  as  guide,  I  struck  off 
through  the  forest  for  the  main  camp,  reaching  it  early  in 
the  afternoon.  Thence  I  bundled  off  a  safari  to  Cuning- 
hame and  Heller,  with  food  for  a  week,  and  tents  and 
clothing;  and  then  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  a  shave  and  a  warm 
bath.  Next  day  was  spent  in  writing  and  making  prepara- 
tions for  my  own  trip.  A  Kikuyu  chief,  clad  in  a  cloak  of 
hyrax  skins,  and  carrying  his  war  spear,  came  to  congratu- 
late me  on  killing  the  elephant  and  to  present  me  with  a 
sheep.  Early  the  following  morning  everything  was  in  read- 
iness; the  bull-necked  porters  lifted  their  loads,  I  stepped 
out  in  front,  foUowed  by  my  led  horse,  and  in  ten  hours' 
march  we  reached  Neri  boma,  with  its  neat  buildings,  its 
trees,  and  its  well-kept  flower  beds. 

My  hunting  and  travelling  during  the  following  fort- 
night will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.  On  the  evening 
of  September  6th  we  were  all  together  again  at  Meru 
boma,  on  the  north-eastern  slopes  of  Kenia — Kermit,  Tarl- 
ton,  Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  I.  Thanks  to  the  unfailing 
kindness  of  the  commissioner,  Mr.  Home,  we  were  given 
full  information  of  the  elephant  in  the  neighborhood.  He 
had  no  'Ndorobo,  but  among  the  Wa-Meru,  a  wild  mar^ 
tial  tribe,  who  lived  close  around  him,  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  hunters,  or  at  least  of  men  who  knew  the  forest  and 
the  game,  and  these  had  been  instructed  to  bring  in  any 
news. 

We  had,  of  course,  no  idea  that  elephant  would  be 
found   close   at   hand.     But .  next  morning,   about   eleven, 


302  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Home  came  to  our  camp  with  four  of  his  black  scouts, 
who  reported  that  three  elephants  were  in  a  patch  of  thick 
jungle  beside  the  shambas,  not  three  miles  away.  Home 
said  that  the  elephants  were  cows,  that  they  had  been  in 
the  neighborhood  some  days,  devastating  the  shambas, 
and  were  bold  and  fierce,  having  charged  some  men  who 
sought  to  drive  them  away  from  the  cultivated  fields;  it  is 
curious  to  see  how  little  heed  these  elephants  pay  to  the 
natives.  I  wished  a  cow  for  the  museum,  and  also  another 
bull.  So  ofi^  we  started  at  once,  Kermit  carrying  his  camera. 
I  slipped  on  my  rubber-soled  shoes,  and  had  my  gun- 
bearers  accompany  me  barefooted,  with  the  Holland  and 
the  Springfield  rifles.  We  followed  foot-paths  among  the 
fields  until  we  reached  the  edge  of  the  jungle  in  which  the 
elephants  stood. 

This  jungle  lay  beside  the  forest,  and  at  this  point 
separated  it  from  the  fields.  It  consisted  of  a  mass  of  rank- 
growing  bushes,  allied  to  the  cotton-plant,  ten  or  twelve 
feet  high,  with  only  here  and  there  a  tree.  It  was  not  good 
ground  in  which  to  hunt  elephant,  for  the  tangle  was  prac- 
tically impenetrable  to  a  hunter  save  along  the  elephant 
trails,  whereas  the  elephants  themselves  could  move  in 
any  direction  at  will,  with  no  more  difficulty  than  a  man 
would  have  in  a  hay-field.  The  bushes  in  most  places  rose 
just  above  their  backs,  so  that  they  were  completely  hid 
from  the  hunter  even  a  few  feet  away.  Yet  the  cover 
afforded  no  shade  to  the  mighty  beasts,  and  it  seemed 
strange  that  elephants  should  stand  in  it  at  mid-day  with 
the  sun  out.  There  they  were,  hov^ever,  for,  looking  cau- 
tiously into  the  cover  from  behind  the  bushes  on  a  slight 
hill-crest  quarter  of  a  mile  off,  we  could  just  make  out  a 
huge  ear  now  and  then  as  it  lazily  flapped. 

On  account  of  the  wind  we  had  to  go  well  to  one  side 
before  entering  the  jungle.  Then  in  we  went  in  single 
file,  Cuninghame  and  Tarlton  leading,  with  a  couple  of  our 
naked  guides.  The  latter  showed  no  great  desire  to  get  too 
close,   explaining  that   the   elephants  were   "very  fierce." 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


303 


Once  in  the  jungle,  we  trod  as  quietly  as  possible,  thread- 
ing our  way  along  the  elephant  trails,  which  crossed  and 
recrossed  one  another.  Evidently  it  was  a  favorite  haunt, 
for  the  sign  was  abundant,  both  old  and  new.  In  the  im- 
penetrable cover  it  was  quite  impossible  to  tell  just  where 
the  elephants  were,  and  twice  we  sent  one  of  the  savages  up 


Trunk  of  giant  fig-tree  in  Kenia  forest 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

a  tree  to  locate  the  game.  The  last  time  the  watcher,  who 
stayed  in  the  tree,  indicated  by  signs  that  the  elephant  were 
not  far  off;  and  his  companions  wished  to  lead  us  round 
to  where  the  cover  was  a  little  lower  and  thinner.  But 
to  do  so  would  have  given  them  our  wind,  and  Cuninghame 
refused,  taking  into  his  own  hands  the  management  of  the 
stalk.  I  kept  my  heavy  rifle  at  the  ready,  and  on  we  went, 
in  watchful  silence,  prepared  at  any  moment  for  a  charge. 
We  could  not  tell  at  what  second  we  might  catch  our  first 
glimpse  at  very  close  quarters  of  "the  beast  that  hath 
between  his  eyes  the  serpent  for  a  hand,"  and  when  thus 
surprised  the  temper  of  "the  huge  earth-shaking  beast'' 
is  sometimes  of  the  shortest. 


304  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

Cunlnghame  and  Tarlton  stopped  for  a  moment  to 
consult;  Cuninghame  stooped,  and  Tarlton  mounted  his 
shoulders  and  stood  upright,  steadying  himself  by  my 
hand.  Down  he  came  and  told  us  that  he  had  seen  a 
small  tree  shake  seventy  yards  distant;  although  upright  on 
Cuninghame's  shoulders  he  could  not  see  the  elephant  it- 
self. Forward  we  stole  for  a  few  yards,  and  then  a  piece 
of  good  luck  befell  us,  for  we  came  on  the  trunk  of  a  great 
fallen  tree,  and  scrambling  up,  we  found  ourselves  perched 
in  a  row  six  feet  above  the  ground.  The  highest  part  of 
the  trunk  was  near  the  root,  farthest  from  where  the  ele- 
phants were;  and  though  it  offered  precarious  footing,  it 
also  offered  the  best  lookout.  Thither  I  balanced,  and 
looking  over  the  heads  of  my  companions  I  at  once  made 
out  the  elephant.  At  first  I  could  see  nothing  but  the 
shaking  branches,  and  one  huge  ear  occasionally  flapping. 
Then  I  made  out  the  ear  of  another  beast,  and  then  the 
trunk  of  a  third  was  uncurled,  lifted,  and  curled  again;  it 
showered  its  back  with  earth.  The  watcher  we  had  left 
behind  in  the  tree  top  coughed;  the  elephants  stood  mo- 
tionless, and  up  went  the  biggest  elephant's  trunk,  feeling  for 
the  wind;  the  watcher  coughed  again,  and  then  the  bushes 
and  saplings  swayed  and  parted  as  three  black  bulks  came 
toward  us.  The  cover  was  so  high  that  we  could  not  see 
their  tusks,  only  the  tops  of  their  heads  and  their  backs 
being  visible.  The  leader  was  the  biggest,  and  at  it  I  fired 
when  it  was  sixty  yards  away,  and  nearly  broadside  on, 
but  heading  slightly  toward  me.  I  had  previously  warned 
every  one  to  kneel.  The  recoil  of  the  heavy  rifle  made 
me  rock,  as  I  stood  unsteadily  on  my  percn,  and  I  failed 
to  hit  the  brain.  But  the  bullet,  only  missing  the  brain 
by  an  inch  or  two,  brought  the  elephant  to  its  knees;  as  it 
rose  I  floored  it  with  the  second  barrel.  The  blast  of  the 
big  rifle,  by  the  way,  was  none  too  pleasant  for  the  other 
men  on  the  log  and  made  Cuninghame's  nose  bleed.  Re- 
loading, I  fired  twice  at  the  next  animal,  which  was  now 
turning.      It   stumbled   and   nearly  fell,   but   at   the   same 


The  charging  bull  elephant 

"  He  could  have  touched  me  with  his  trunk  " 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin  Irom  photographs  and  jrom  descriptions  jurnished  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 


20 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  307 

moment  the  first  one  rose  again,  and  I  fired  both  barrels 
into  its  head,  bringing  it  once  more  to  the  ground.  Once 
again  it  rose — an  elephant's  brain  is  not  an  easy  mark  to 
hit  under  such  conditions — but  as  it  moved  slowly  off, 
half  stunned,  I  snatched  the  little  Springfield  rifle,  and 
this  time  shot  true,  sending  the  bullet  into  its  brain.  As  it 
fell  I  took  another  shot  at  the  wounded  elephant,  now  dis- 
appearing in  the  forest,  but  without  effect. 

On  walking  up  to  our  prize  it  proved  to  be  not  a  cow, 
but  a  good-sized  adult  (but  not  old)  herd  bull,  with  thick, 
short  tusks,  weighing  about  forty  pounds  apiece.  Ordi- 
narily, of  course,  a  bull,  and  not  a  cow,  is  what  one  desires, 
although  on  this  occasion  I  needed  a  cow  to  complete  the 
group  for  the  National  Museum.  However,  Heller  and 
Cuninghame  spent  the  next  few  days  in  preserving  the  skin, 
which  I  afterward  gave  to  the  University  of  California;  and 
I  was  too  much  pleased  with  our  luck  to  feel  inclined  to 
grumble.  We  were  back  in  camp  five  hours  after  leaving 
it.  Our  gun-bearers  usually  felt  it  incumbent  on  them  to 
keep  a  dignified  bearing  while  in  our  company.  But  the 
death  of  an  elephant  is  always  a  great  event;  and  one  of 
the  gun-bearers,  as  they  walked  ahead  of  us  campward, 
soon  began  to  improvise  a  song,  reciting  the  success  of 
the  hunt,  the  death  of  the  elephant,  and  the  power  of 
the  rifles;  and  gradually,  as  they  got  farther  ahead,  the 
more  light-hearted  among  them  began  to  give  way  to 
their  spirits  and  they  came  into  camp  frolicking,  gambol- 
ling, and  dancing  as  if  they  were  still  the  naked  savages 
that  they  had  been  before  they  became  the  white  man's 
followers. 

Two  days  later  Kermit  got  his  bull.  He  and  Tarlton 
had  camped  about  ten  miles  cff  in  a  magnificent  forest, 
and  late  the  first  afternoon  received  news  that  a  herd  of  ele- 
phants was  in  the  neighborhood.  They  were  off  by  dawn, 
and  in  a  few  hours  came  on  the  herd.  It  consisted  chiefly 
of  cows  and  calves,  but  there  was  one  big  master  bull,  with 
fair  tusks.    It  was  open  forest  with  long  grass.      By  careful 


308  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

stalking  they  got  within  thirty  yards  of  the  bull,  behind 
whom  was  a  line  of  cows.  Kermit  put  both  barrels  of  his 
heavy  double  .450  into  the  tusker's  head,  but  without  even 
staggering  him;  and  as  he  walked  off  Tarlton  also  fired 
both  barrels  into  him,  with  no  more  effect;  then,  as  he 
slowly  turned,  Kermit  killed  him  with  a  shot  in  the  brain 
from  the  .405  Winchester.  Immediately  the  cows  lifted 
their  ears,  and  began  trumpeting  and  threatening;  if  they 
had  come  on  in  a  body  at  that  distance,  there  was  not 
much  chance  of  turning  them  or  of  escaping  from  them: 
and  after  standing  stock  still  for  a  minute  or  two,  Kermit 
and  Tarlton  stole  quietly  off  for  a  hundred  yards,  and 
waited  until  the  anger  of  the  cows  cooled  and  they  had 
moved  away,  before  going  up  to  the  dead  bull.  Then  they 
followed  the  herd  again,  and  Kermit  got  some  photos 
which,  as  far  as  I  know,  are  better  than  any  that  have 
ever  before  been  taken  of  wild  elephant.  He  took  them 
close  up,  at  imminent  risk  of  a  charge. 

The  following  day  the  two  hunters  rode  back  to  Meru, 
making  a  long  circle.  The  elephants  they  saw  were  not 
worth  shooting,  but  they  killed  the  finest  rhinoceros  we  had 
yet  seen.  They  saw  it  in  an  open  space  of  tall  grass,  sur- 
rounded by  lantana  brush,  a  flowering  shrub  with  close- 
growing  stems,  perhaps  twenty  feet  high  and  no  thicker 
than  a  man's  thumb;  it  forms  a  favorite  cover  for  elephants 
and  rhinoceros,  and  is  wellnigh  impenetrable  to  hunters. 
Fortunately  this  particular  rhino  was  outside  it,  and  Ker- 
mit and  Tarlton  got  up  to  about  twenty-five  yards  from 
him.  Kermit  then  put  one  bullet  behind  his  shoulder, 
and  as  he  whipped  round  to  charge,  another  bullet  on  the 
point  of  his  shoulder;  although  mortally  wounded,  he 
showed  no  signs  whatever  of  being  hurt,  and  came  at  the 
hunters  with  great  speed  and  savage  desire  to  do  harm. 
Then  an  extraordinary  thing  happened.  Tarlton  fired, 
inflicting  merely  a  flesh  wound  in  one  shoulder,  and  the 
big,  fearsome  brute,  which  had  utterly  disregarded  the  two 
fatal  shots,  on  receiving  this  flesh  wound,  wheeled  and  ran. 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING  311 

Both  firing,  they  killed  him  before  he  had  gone  many  yards. 
He  was  a  bull,  with  a  thirty-inch  horn. 

By  this  time  Cuninghame  and  Heller  had  finished  the 
skin  and  skeleton  of  the  bull  they  were  preserving.  Near 
the  carcass  Heller  trapped  an  old  male  leopard,  a  savage 
beast;  its  skin  was  in  fine  shape,  but  It  was  not  fat,  and 
weighed  just  one  hundred  pounds.  Now  we  all  joined, 
and  shifted  camp  to  a  point  eight  or  nine  miles  distant 
from  Meru  boma,  and  fifteen  hundred  feet  lower  among  the 
foot-hills.  It  was  much  hotter  at  this  lower  level;  palms 
were  among  the  trees  that  bordered  the  streams.  On  the 
day  we  shifted  camp  Tarlton  and  I  rode  in  advance  to 
look  for  elephants,  followed  by  our  gun-bearers  and  half  a 
dozen  wild  Meru  hunters,  each  carrying  a  spear  or  a  bow 
and  arrows.  When  v/e  reached  the  hunting  grounds,  open 
country  with  groves  of  trees  and  patches  of  jungle,  the 
Meru  went  off  in  every  direction  to  fmd  elephant.  We 
waited  their  return  under  a  tree,  by  a  big  stretch  of  culti- 
vated ground.  The  region  was  well  peopled,  and  all  the 
way  dov^'n  the  path  had  led  between  fields,  which  the  Meru 
women  were  tilling  with  their  adze-like  hoes,  and  banana 
plantations,  where  among  the  bananas  other  trees  had 
been  planted,  and  the  yam  vines  trained  up  their  trunks. 
These  cool,  shady  banana  plantations,  fenced  in  with  tall 
hedges  and  bordered  by  rapid  brooks,  were  really  very 
attractive.  Among  them  were  scattered  villages  of  conical 
thatched  huts,  and  level  places  plastered  with  cow  dung 
on  which  the  grain  was  threshed;  it  was  then  stored  in  huts 
raised  on  posts.  There  were  herds  of  cattle,  and  flocks  of 
sheep  and  goats;  and  among  the  burdens  the  women 
bore  we  often  saw  huge  bottles  of  milk.  In  the  shambas 
there  were  platforms,  and  sometimes  regular  thatched  huts, 
placed  in  the  trees;  these  were  for  the  watchers,  who 
were  to  keep  the  elephants  out  of  the  shambas  at  night. 
Some  of  the  natives  wore  girdles  of  banana  leaves,  looking, 
as  Kermit  said,  much  like  the  pictures  of  savages  in  Sun- 
day-school books. 


312  AFRICAN   G.'^ME  TRAILS  ^ 

/  /x  '•^-  ^- 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  description  of  one  of  the  elephant  pictures — written  on  the  back  of  it 

Early  in  the  afternoon  some  of  the  scouts  returned 
with  news  that  three  bull  elephants  were  in  a  piece  of  for- 
est a  couple  of  miles  distant,  and  thither  we  went.  It 
was  an  open  grove  of  heavy  thorn  timber  beside  a  strip  of 
swamp;  among  the  trees  the  grass  grew  tall,  and  there 
were  many  thickets  of  arbutilon,  a  flowering  shrub  a  dozen 
feet  high.  On  this  the  elephant  were  feeding.  Tarlton's 
favorite  sport  was  lion  hunting,  but  he  was  also  a  first- 
class  elephant  hunter,  and  he  brought  me  up  to  these  bulls 
in  fine  style.  Although  only  three  hundred  yards  away, 
it  took  us  two  hours  to  get  close  to  them.  Tarlton  and 
the  "shenzis" — wild  natives,  called  in  Swahili  (a  kind  of 
African  chinook)  "wa-shenzi" — who  were  with  us,  climbed 
tree  after  tree,  first  to  place  the  elephants,  and  then  to  see 
if  they  carried  ivory  heavy  enough  to  warrant  my  shooting 
them.     At  last  Tarlton  brought  me  to  within  fifty  yards 


<^      (b 


The  herd  getting  uneasy 
From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


The  same  herd  on  the  eve  of  charging 

Immediately  after  taking  this  picture.  Kermit  had  to  quietly  make  his  escape,  slipping  off  among  the  trees  to 
avoid  the  charge ;  he  did  not  wish  to  shoot  any  of  the  herd  if  it  could  be  avoided 

From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


316  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

of  them.  Two  were  feeding  in  bush  which  hid  them  from 
view,  and  the  third  stood  between,  facing  us.  We  could 
only  see  the  top  of  his  head  and  back,  and  not  his  tusks,  and 
could  not  tell  whether  he  was  worth  shooting.  Much  puz- 
zled we  stood  where  we  were,  peering  anxiously  at  the  huge 
half-hidden  game.  Suddenly  there  was  a  slight  eddy  in 
the  wind,  up  went  the  elephant's  trunk,  twisting  to  and  fro 
in  the  air;  evidently  he  could  not  catch  a  clear  scent;  but 
in  another  moment  we  saw  the  three  great  dark  forms 
moving  gently  off  through  the  bush.  As  rapidly  as  possi- 
ble, following  the  trails  already  tramped  by  the  elephants, 
we  walked  forward,  and  after  a  hundred  yards  Tarlton 
pointed  to  a  big  bull  with  good  tusks  standing  motionless 
behind  some  small  trees  seventy  yards  distant.  As  I  aimed 
at  his  head  he  started  to  move  off;  the  first  bullet  from  the 
heavy  Holland  brought  him  to  his  knees,  and  as  he  rose  I 
knocked  him  flat  with  the  second.  He  struggled  to  rise; 
but,  both  firing,  we  kept  him  down;  and  I  finished  him 
with  a  bullet  in  the  brain  from  the  little  Springfield.  Al- 
though rather  younger  than  either  of  the  bulls  I  had  already 
shot,  it  was  even  larger.  In  its  stomach  were  beans  from 
the  shambas,  abutilon  tips,  and  bark,  and  especially  the 
twigs,  leaves,  and  white  blossoms  of  a  smaller  shrub.  The 
tusks  weighed  a  little  over  a  hundred  pounds  the  pair. 

We  still  needed  a  cow  for  the  museum;  and  a  couple 
of  days  later,  at  noon,  a  party  of  natives  brought  in  word 
that  they  had  seen  two  cows  in  a  spot  five  miles  away. 
Piloted  by  a  naked  spearman,  whose  hair  was  done  into  a 
cue,  we  rode  toward  the  place.  For  most  of  the  distance 
we  followed  old  elephant  trails,  in  some  places  mere  tracks 
beaten  down  through  stiff  grass  which  stood  above  the 
head  of  a  man  on  horseback,  in  other  places  paths  rutted 
deep  into  the  earth.  We  crossed  a  river,  where  monkeys 
chattered  among  the  tree  tops.  On  an  open  plain  we  saw 
a  rhinoceros  cow  trotting  off  with  her  calf.  At  last  we  came 
to  a  hill-top  with,  on  the  summit,  a  noble  fig-tree,  whose 
giant  limbs  were   stretched  over  the  palms  that  clustered 


ELEPHANT   HUNTINCr  317 

beneath.  Here  we  left  our  horses  and  went  forward  on 
foot,  crossing  a  palm-fringed  stream  in  a  little  valley.  From 
the  next  rise  we  saw  the  backs  of  the  elephants  as  they 
stood  in  a  slight  valley,  where  the  rank  grass  grew  ten  or 
twelve  feet  high.  It  was  some  time  before  we  could  see  the 
ivory  so  as  to  be  sure  of  exactly  what  we  were  shooting. 
Then  the  biggest  cow  began  to  move  slowly  forward,  and 
we  walked  nearly  parallel  to  her,  along  an  elephant  trail, 
until  from  a  slight  knoll  I  got  a  clear  view  of  her  at  a  dis- 
tance of  eighty  yards.  As  she  walked  leisurely  along,  almost 
broadside  to  me,  I  fired  the  right  barrel  of  the  Holland 
into  her  head,  knocking  her  flat  down  v/ith  the  shock;  and 
when  she  rose  I  put  a  bullet  from  the  left  barrel  through 
her  heart,  again  knocking  her  completely  off  her  feet; 
and  this  time  she  fell  permanently.  She  was  a  very  old 
cow,  and  her  ivory  was  rather  better  than  in  the  average 
of  her  sex  in  this  neighborhood,  the  tusks  weighing  about 
eighteen  pounds  apiece.  She  had  been  ravaging  the  sham- 
bas  overnight — which  accounted  in  part  for  the  natives 
being  so  eager  to  show  her  to  me — and  in  addition  to  leaves 
and  grass,  her  stomach  contained  quantities  of  beans. 
There  was  a  young  one — just  out  of  calfhood,  and  quite 
able  to  take  care  of  itself — with  her;  it  ran  off  as  soon  as 
the  mother  fell. 

Early  next  morning  Cuninghame  and  Heller  shifted 
part  of  the  safari  to  the  stream  near  where  the  dead  ele- 
phant lay,  intending  to  spend  the  following  three  days  in 
taking  off  and  preparing  the  skin.  Meanwhile  Tarlton, 
Kermit,  and  I  were  to  try  our  luck  in  a  short  hunt  on  the 
other  side  of  Meru  boma,  at  a  little  crater  lake  called  Lake 
Ingouga.  We  could  not  get  an  early  start,  and  reached 
Meru  too  late  to  push  on  to  the  lake  the  same  day. 

The  following  morning  we  marched  to  the  lake  in  two 
hours  and  a  half.  We  spent  an  hour  in  crossing  a  broad 
tongue  of  woodland  that  stretched  down  from  the  wonder- 
ful mountain  forest  lying  higher  on  the  slopes.  The  trail 
was  blind  in  many  places  because  elephant  paths  of  every 


318  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

age  continually  led  along  and  across  it,  some  of  them  be- 
ing much  better  marked  than  the  trail  itself,  as  it  twisted 
through  the  sun-flecked  shadows  underneath  the  great  trees. 
Then  we  came  out  on  high  downs,  covered  with  tall  grass 
and  littered  with  volcanic  stones;  and  broken  by  ravines 
which  were  choked  with  dense  underbrush.  There  were 
high  hills,  and  to  the  left  of  the  downs,  toward  Kenia,  these 
were  clad  in  forest.  We  pitched  our  tents  on  a  steep  cliff 
overlooking  the  crater  lake — or  pond,  as  it  might  more 
properly  be  called.  It  was  bordered  with  sedge,  and  through 
the  water-lilies  on  its  surface  we  saw  the  reflection  of  the 
new  moon  after  nightfall.  Here  and  there  thick  forest  came 
down  to  the  brink,  and  through  this,  on  opposite  sides  of 
the  pond,  deeply  worn  elephant  paths,  evidently  travelled 
for  ages,  wound  down  to  the  water. 

That  evening  we  hunted  for  bushbuck,  but  saw  none. 
While  sitting  on  a  hillock  at  dusk,  watching  for  game,  a 
rhino  trotted  up  to  inspect  us,  with  ears  cocked  forward 
and  tail  erect.  A  rhino  always  has  something  comic  about 
it,  like  a  pig,  formidable  though  it  at  times  is.  This  one 
carried  a  poor  horn,  and  therefore  we  were  pleased  when  at 
last  it  trotted  off  without  obliging  us  to  shoot  it.  We  saw 
new  kinds  of  whydah  birds,  one  with  a  yellow  breast,  one 
with  white  in  its  tail;  at  this  altitude  the  cocks  were  still 
in  full  plumage,  although  it  was  just  past  the  middle  of 
September;  whereas  at  Naivasha  they  had  begun  to  lose 
their  long  tail  feathers  nearly  two  months  previously. 

On  returning  to  camp  we  received  a  note  from  Cuning- 
hame  saying  that  Heller  had  been  taken  seriously  sick,  and 
Tarlton  had  to  go  to  them.  This  left  Kermit  and  me  to 
take  our  two  days'  hunt  together. 

One  day  we  got  nothing.  We  saw  game  on  the  open 
downs,  but  it  was  too  wary,  and  though  we  got  within  twenty- 
five  yards  of  eland  in  thick  cover,  we  could  only  make  out 
a  cow,  and  she  took  fright  and  ran  without  our  ever  getting 
a  glimpse  of  the  bull  that  was  with  her.  Late  in  the  after- 
noon we  saw  an  elephant  a  mile  and  a  half  away,  crossing 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


319 


a  corner  of  the  open  downs.     We  followed  its  trail  until 
the  light  grew  too  dim  for  shooting,  but  never  overtook  it, 
although  at  the  last  we  could  hear  it  ahead  of  us  breaking 
the   branches; 
and     we    made 
our  way  back  to 
camp    through 
the  darkness. 

The  other  day 
made  amends. 
It  was  Kermit's 
turn  to  shoot  an 
elephant,  and 
mine  to  shoot  a 
rhinoceros;  and 
each  of  us  was 
to  act  as  the 
backing  gun  for 
the  other.  In 
the  forenoon,  we 
saw  a  bull  rhino 
with  a  good  horn 
walking  over  the 
open  downs.  A 
convenient  hill 
enabled  us  to 
cut  him  off  with- 
out difficulty, 
and  from  its 
summit  we 
killed  him  at  the 
base,  fifty  or  six- 
ty yards  off.  His 

front  horn  was  nearly  twenty-nine  inches  long;  but  though  he 
was  an  old  bull,  his  total  length,  from  tip  of  nose  to  tip  of  tail, 
was  only  twelve  feet,  and  he  was,  I  should  guess,  not  more 
than  two-thirds  the  bulk  of  the  big  bull  I  killed  in  the  Sotik. 


A  watch-tower  in  Meru  shambas 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


ryzo 


AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 


We  rested  for  an  hour  or  two  at  noon,  under  the  shade 
of  a  very  old  tree  with  glossy  leaves,  and  orchids  growing 
on  its  gnarled,  hoary  limbs,  while  the  unsaddled  horses 
grazed,  and  the  gun-bearers  slept  near  bv,  the  cool  moun- 


Mr.  Roosevelt's  and  Kermit's  camp  near  which  they  got  the  rhino  and  elephant 
From  a  pholograph  by  Kcrmit  Roosevelt 

tain  air,  although  this  was  mid-day  under  the  equator, 
making  them  prefer  the  sunlight  to  the  shade.  When  we 
moved  on  it  was  through  a  sea  of  bush  ten  or  fifteen  feet 
high,  dotted  here  and  there  with  trees;  and  riddled  in  every 
direction  by  the  trails  of  elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  buffalo. 
Each  of  these  animals  frequents  certain  kinds  of  country  to 
which  the  other  two  rarely  or  never  penetrate;  but  here  they 
all  three  found  ground  to  their  liking.  Except  along  their 
winding  trails,  which  were  tunnels  where  the  jungle  was 


ELEPHANT  HUNTING 


3^21 


tall,  it  would  have  been  practically  impossible  to  traverse 
the  thick  and  matted  cover  in  which  they  had  made  their 
abode. 

We  could  not  tell  what  moment  we  might  find  ourselves 
face   to  face  with    some   big  beast   at  such  close   (juarters 


A  cow  elephant 
From  a  photograph  by  R.  J.  Cuninghame 


as  to  insure  a  charge,  and  we  moved  in  cautious  silence, 
our  rifles  in  our  hands.  Rhinoceros  were  especially  plenti- 
ful, and  we  continually  came  across  not  only  their  tracks, 
but  the  dusty  wallows  in  which  they  rolled,  and  where 
they  came  to  deposit  their  dung.    The  fresh  sign  of  elephant, 


21 


322  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

however,  distracted  our  attention  from  the  lesser  game, 
and  we  followed  the  big  footprints  eagerly,  now  losing  the 
trail,  now  finding  it  again.  At  last  near  a  clump  of  big  trees 
we  caught  sight  of  three  huge,  dark  bodies  ahead  of  us. 
The  wind  was  right,  and  we  stole  toward  them,  Kermit 
leading,  and  I  immediately  behind.  Through  the  tangled 
branches  their  shapes  loomed  in  vague  outline;  but  v/e 
saw  that  one  had  a  pair  of  long  tusks,  and  oiir  gun-bearers 
unanimously  pronounced  it  a  big  bull,  with  good  ivory.  A 
few  more  steps  gave  Kermit  a  chance  at  its  head,  at  about 
sixty  yards,  and  with  a  bullet  from  his  .405  Winchester  he 
floored  the  mighty  beast.  It  rose,  and  we  both  fired  in 
unison,  bringing  it  down  again;  but  as  we  came  up  it 
struggled  to  get  on  its  feet,  roaring  savagely,  and  once  more 
we  both  fired  together.  This  finished  it.  We  were  dis- 
appointed at  finding  that  it  was  not  a  bull;  but  it  was  a 
large  cow,  with  tusks  over  five  feet  long — a  very  unusual 
length  for  a  cow — one  weighing  twenty-five,  and  the  other 
twenty-two  pounds. 

Our  experience  had  convinced  us  that  both  the  Win- 
chester .405,  and  the  Springfield  .300  would  do  good  work 
with  elephants;  although  I  kept  to  my  belief  that,  for  such 
very  heavy  game,  my  Holland  .500-.450  was  an  even  better 
weapon. 

Not  far  from  where  this  elephant  fell  Tarlton  had,  the 
year  before,  witnessed  an  interesting  incident.  He  was 
watching  a  small  herd  of  elephants,  cows  and  calves,  which 
were  in  the  open,  when  he  saw  them  begin  to  grow  uneasy. 
Then,  with  a  shrill  trumpet,  a  cow  approached  a  bush,  out 
of  which  bounded  a  big  lion.  Instantly  all  the  cows  charged 
him,  and  he  fled  as  fast  as  his  legs  would  carry  him  for  the 
forest,  two  hundred  yards  distant.  He  just  managed  to 
reach  the  cover  in  safety;  and  then  the  infuriated  cows,  in 
their  anger  at  his  escape,  demolished  the  forest  for  several 
rods  in  every  direction. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  GUASO  NYERO;    A  RIVER  OF  THE  EQUATORIAL 

DESERT 

When  I  reached  Neri,  after  coming  down  from  killing 
my  first  elephant  on  Kenia,  I  was  kept  waiting  two  or 
three  days  before  I  could  gather  enough  Kikuyu  porters. 
As  I  could  not  speak  a  word  of  their  language  I  got  a  couple 
of  young  Scotch  settlers,  very  good  fellows,  to  take  charge 
of  the  safari  out  to  where  I  intended  to  hunt.  There  was  a 
party  of  the  King's  African  Rifles  camped  at  Neri;  the 
powerful-looking  enlisted  men  were  from  the  south,  chiefly 
from  one  of  the  northernmost  tribes  of  Zulu  blood,  and 
their  two  officers  were  of  the  best  Kipling-soldier  type. 
Then  there  was  another  safari,  that  of  Messrs.  Kearton 
and  Clark  who  were  taking  some  really  extraordinary 
photographs  of  birds  and  game.  Finally,  Governor  and 
Mrs.  Jackson  arrived  from  a  trip  they  had  been  making 
round  Kenia;  and  I  was  much  pleased  to  be  able  to  tell 
the  Governor,  who  had  helped  me  in  every  way,  about  my 
bull  elephant,  and  to  discuss  with  him  some  of  the  birds 
we  had  seen  and  the  mammals  we  had  trapped.  A  great 
ingowa,  a  war-dance  of  the  natives,  was  held  in  his  honor, 
and  the  sight  was,  as  always,  one  of  interest  and  of  a  certain 
fascination:  There  was  an  Indian  trader  at  Neri  from 
whom  we  had  obtained  donkeys  to  carry  to  our  elephant 
camp  "posho,"  or  food  for  the  porters.  He  announced 
that  they  were  all  in  readiness  in  a  letter  to  Cuninghame, 
which  was  meant  to  be  entirely  respectful,  but  which 
sounded  odd,  as  it  was  couched  in  characteristic  Baboo 
English.  The  opening  lines  ran:  "Dear  K-ham,  the 
donkeys  are  altogether  deadly."  - 

323 


324 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


At  last  fifty  Kikuyus  assembled — they  are  not  able  to 
carry  the  loads  of  regular  Swahili  porters — and  I  started 
that  moment,  though  it  was  too  late  in  the 
^P  afternoon  to  travel  more  than  three  or  four 
miles.  The  Kikuyus  were  real  savages,  naked 
save  for  a  dingy  blanket,  usually  carried  round 
the  neck.  They  formed  a 
picturesque  safari;  but  it  was 
difficult  to  make  the  grass- 
hopper-like creatures  take 
even  as  much  thought  for  the 
future  as  the  ordinary  happy- 
go-lucky  porters  take.  At 
night  if  it  rained  they  cow- 
ered under  the  bushes  in 
drenched  and  shivering  dis- 
comfort; and  yet  they  had 
to  be  driven  to  make  bough 
shelters  for  themselves.  Once 
these  shelters  were  up,  and  a 
little  fire  kindled  at  the  en- 
trance of  each,  the  moping, 
spiritless  wretches  would 
speedily  become  transformed 
into  beings  who  had  lost  all  re- 
membrance of  ever  having 
been  wet  or  cold.  After  their 
posho  had  been  distributed 
and  eaten  they  would  sit, 
huddled  and  cheerful,  in 
their  shelters,  and  sing 
steadily  for  a  couple  of  hours. 
Their  songs  were  much  wilder 
than  those  of  the  regular  porters,  and  were  often  warlike. 
Occasionally,  some  "shanty  man,"  as  he  would  be  called 
on  shipboard,  improvised  or  repeated  a  kind  of  story  in 
short  sentences  or  strophes;    but  the  main  feature  of  each 


Kikuyu  warrior 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  325 

song  was  the  endless  repetition  of  some  refrain,  musically 
chanted  in  chorus  by  the  whole  party.  This  repetition  of 
a  short  sentence  or  refrain  is  a  characteristic  of  many 
kinds  of  savage  music ;  I  have  seen  the  Pawnees  grow 
almost  maddened  by  their  triumph  song,  or  victory  song, 
which  consisted  of  nothing  whatever  but  the  fierce,  bark- 
ing, wolf-like  repetition  of  the  words,  "In  the  morning  the 
wolves  feasted." 

Our  first  afternoon's  march  was  uneventful;  but  I  was 
amused  at  one  of  our  porters  and  the  "safari"  ants.  These 
safari  ants  are  so  called  by  the  natives  because  they  go 
on  foraging  expeditions  in  immense  numbers.  The  big- 
headed  warriors  are  able  to  inflict  a  really  painful  bite. 
In  open  spaces,  as  where  crossing  a  path,  the  column  makes 
a  little  sunken  way  through  which  it  streams  uninterruptedly. 
Whenever  we  came  to  such  a  safari  ant  column,  in  its 
sunken  way,  crossing  our  path,  the  porter  in  question  laid 
two  twigs  on  the  ground  as  a  peace-offering  to  the  ants. 
He  said  that  they  were  on  safari,  just  as  we  were,  and  that 
it  was  wise  to  propitiate  them. 

That  evening  we  camped  in  a  glade  in  the  forest.  At 
nightfall  dozens  of  the  big  black-and-white  hornbill,  croak- 
ing harshly,  flew  overhead,  their  bills  giving  them  a  curi- 
ously top-heavy  look.    They  roosted  in  the  trees  near  by. 

Next  day  we  came  out  on  the  plains,  where  there  was  no 
cultivation,  and  instead  of  the  straggling  thatch  and  wattle, 
unfenced  villages  of  the  soil-tilling  Kikuyus,  we  found  our- 
selves again  among  the  purely  pastoral  Masai,  whose  tem- 
porary villages  are  arranged  in  a  ring  or  oval,  the  cattle 
being  each  night  herded  in  the  middle,  and  the  mud-daubed, 
cow-dung-plastered  houses  so  placed  that  their  backs  form 
a  nearly  continuous  circular  wall,  the  spaces  between  being 
choked  with  thorn-bushes.  I  killed  a  stelnbuck,  missed  a 
tommy,  and  at  three  hundred  yards  hit  a  Jackson's  harte- 
beest  too  far  back,  and  failed  in  an  effort  to  ride  it  down. 

The  day  after  we  were  out  on  plains  untenanted  by  hu- 
man beings,  and  early  in  the  afternoon  struck  water  by 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

which  to  pitch  our  tents.  There  was  not  much  game,  and 
it  was  shy;  but  I  thought  that  I  could  kill  enough  to  keep 
the  camp  in  meat  so  I  sent  back  the  two  Scotchmen  and 
their  Kikuyus,  after  having  them  build  a  thorn  boma,  or 
fence,  round  the  camp.  One  of  the  reasons  why  the  Masai 
had  driven  their  herds  and  flocks  off  this  plain  was  be- 
cause a  couple  of  lions  had  turned  man-eaters,  and  had 
killed  a  number  of  men  and  women.  We  saw  no  sign  of 
lions,  and  believed  they  had  followed  the  Masai;  but  there 
was  no  use  in  taking  needless  chances. 

The  camp  was  beside  a  cold,  rapid  stream,  one  of  the 
head-waters  of  the  Guaso  Nyero.  It  was  heavily  fringed 
with  thorn  timber.  To  the  east  the  crags  and  snow- 
fields  of  Kenia  rose  from  the  slow  swell  of  the  mountain's 
base.  It  should  have  been  the  dry  season,  but  there  were 
continual  heavy  rains,  which  often  turned  into  torrential 
downpours.  In  the  overcast  mornings  as  I  rode  away  from 
camp,  it  was  as  cool  as  if  I  were  riding  through  the  fall 
weather  at  home;  at  noon,  if  the  sun  came  out,  straight 
overhead,  the  heat  was  blazing;  and  we  generally  returned 
to  camp  at  nightfall,  drenched  with  the  cold  rain.  The 
first  heavy  storm,  the  evening  we  pitched  camp,  much  ex- 
cited all  my  followers.  Ali  came  rushing  into  the  tent  to 
tell  me  that  there  was  "a  big  snake  up  high."  This  cer- 
tainly seemed  worth  investigating,  and  I  followed  him  out- 
side where  everybody  was  looking  at  the  "snake,"  which 
proved  to  be  a  huge,  funnel-shaped,  whirling  cloud,  career- 
ing across  the  darkened  sky.  It  was  a  kind  of  waterspout 
or  cyclone;   fortunately  it  passed  to  one  side  of  camp. 

The  first  day  I  hunted  I  shot  only  a  steinbuck  for  the 
table.  The  country  alternated  between  bare  plains  and 
great  stretches  of  sparse,  stunted  thorns.  We  saw  zebra, 
and  two  or  three  bands  of  oryx;  big,  handsome  antelope 
strongly  built  and  boldly  colored,  with  long,  black,  rapier- 
like horns.  They  were  very  wary,  much  more  so  than  the 
zebra  with  which  they  associated,  and  we  could  not  get 
anywhere  near  them. 


THE   GUASO   NYERO 


327 


Next  day  I  hunted  along  the  edges  of  a  big  swamp. 
We  saw  waterbuck,  but  were  unable  to  get  within  shot. 
However,  near  the  farther  end  of  the  swamp,  in  an  open 
swale,  we  found  four  eland  feeding.  The  eland  is  the  king 
of  antelope;  and  not  only  did  I  desire  meat  for  camp,  but 
I  wished  the  head  of  a  good  bull  as  a  trophy  for  myself, 
the  eland  I  had 
hitherto  shot 
being  for  the 
National  Mu- 
seum. The  lit- 
tle band  in- 
cluded a  big 
bull,  a  small 
bull,  and  two 
cows;  at  a  dis- 
tance the  big 
bull  looked 
slaty  blue.  The 
great,  sleek, 
handsome  crea- 
tures were  feed- 
ing in  the  long 
grass  just  like  cattle,  switching  their  long  tails  at  the 
flies.  The  country  looked  like  a  park,  with  clumps  of 
thorn-trees  scattered  over  the  grassy  sward.  Carefully  I 
crept  on  all-fours  from  tree  clump  to  tree  clump,  trying 
always  to  move  when  the  elands'  heads  were  down  grazing. 
At  last  I  was  within  three  hundred  yards,  when  one  of 
the  cows  caught  a  glimpse  of  me  and  alarmed  the  others. 
They  were  startled,  but  puzzled,  and  after  trotting  a  few 
rods  turned  to  stare  at  the  half-seen  object  of  their  alarm. 
Rising  to  my  knee  I  shot  the  big  bull  in  the  throat  as  with 
head  erect  he  gazed  in  my  direction.  Off  he  went  with  a 
rush,  the  others  bounding  and  leaping  as  they  accom- 
panied him,  and  we  followed  on  the  blood  spoor.  Bakhari 
and  Gouvimali  trotted  fast  on  the  trail,  and  in  order  to  be 


Two  Kikuyu  boys 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


328 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


fresh  for  the  shot  I  mounted  Tranquillity.  Suddenly  out 
bounced  the  wounded  bull  from  some  bushes  close  by, 
and  the  horse  nearly  had  a  fit;    I  could  hardly  get  off  in 


From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


Af'^ 


1.K, 


in  spite  of  its  great  size,  its  finely  moulded 
tiful  coat  gave  it  a  thoroughly  game  look. 

Oryx  were  now  what  I  especially  wished 
all  of  the  following  day  to  their  pursuit.  We 


time  to  empty 
my  magazine 
at  long  range — 
fortunately  with 
effect.  It  was  a 
magnificent  bull 
of  the  variety 
called  Patter- 
son's eland,  with 
a  fine  head.  Few 
prize  oxen  would 
be  as  heavy,  and 
limbs  and  beau- 

,  and  we  devoted 
saw  three  bands, 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  329 

two  of  them  accompanying  herds  of  zebra,  after  the  man- 
ner of  kongoni.  Both  species  were  found  indifferently  on 
the  bare,  short-grass  flats  and  among  the  thin,  stunted 
thorn-trees  which  covered  much  of  the  plains.  After  a 
careful  stalk,  the  latter  part  on  all-fours,  I  got  to  within 
about  three  hundred  yards  of  a  mixed  herd,  and  put  a 
bullet  into  one  oryx  as  it  faced  me,  and  hit  another  as  it 
ran.  The  first,  from  its  position,  I  thought  I  would  surely 
kill  if  I  hit  it  at  all,  and  both  of  the  wounded  beasts  were 
well  behind  the  herd  when  it  halted  a  mile  away  on  the  other 
side  of  the  plain.  But  as  we  approached  they  all  went  off 
together,  and  I  can  only  hope  the  two  I  hit  recovered;  at 
any  rate,  after  we  had  followed  them  for  miles,  the  tough 
beasts  were  still  running  as  strongly  as  ever. 

All  the  morning  I  manoeuvred  and  tramped  hard,  in 
vain.  At  noon,  I  tried  a  stalk  on  a  little  band  of  six,  who 
were  standing  still,  idly  switching  their  tails,  out  in  a  big 
flat.  They  saw  me,  and  at  four  hundred  yards  I  missed  the 
shot.  By  this  time  I  felt  rather  desperate,  and  decided  for 
once  to  abandon  legitimate  proceedings  and  act  on  the 
Ciceronian  theory,  that  he  who  throws  the  javelin  all  day 
must  hit  the  mark  some  time.  Accordingly  I  emptied  the 
magazines  of  both  my  rifles  at  the  oryx,  as  they  ran  across 
my  front,  and  broke  the  neck  of  a  fine  cow,  at  four  hundred 
and  fifty  yards.  Six  or  seven  hundred  yards  off  the  sur- 
vivors stopped,  and  the  biggest  bull,  evidently  much  put 
out,  uttered  loud  bawling  grunts  and  drove  the  others 
round  with  his  horns.  Meanwhile  I  was  admiring  the 
handsome  dun  gray  coat  of  my  prize,  its  long  tail  and  long, 
sharp,  slender  horns,  and  the  bold  black  and  white  mark- 
ings on  its  face.  Hardly  had  we  skinned  the  carcass  before 
the  vultures  lit  on  it;  with  them  were  two  marabou  storks, 
one  of  which  I  shot  with  a  hard  bullet  from  the  Springfield. 

The  oryx,  like  the  roan  and  sable,  and  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  eland,  is  a  bold  and  hard  fighter,  and  when 
cornered  will  charge  a  man  or  endeavor  to  stab  a  lion.  If 
wounded  it  must  be  approached  with  a  certain  amount  of 


330 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


caution.  The  eland,  on  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  its 
huge  size,  is  singularly  mild  and  inoffensive,  an  old  bull 
being  as  inferior  to  an  oryx  in  the  will  and  power  to  fight 
as  it  is  in  speed  and  endurance.  "Antelope,"  as  I  have 
said,  is  a  very  loose  term,  meaning  simply  any  hollow-horned 

ruminant  that  isn't  an 
ox,  a  sheep,  or  a  goat. 
The  eland  is  one  of  the 
group  of  tragelaphs, 
which  are  as  different 
from  the  true  antelopes, 
such  as  the  gazelles,  as 
they  are  from  the  oxen. 
One  of  its  kinsfolk  is 
the  handsome  little 
bushbuck,  about  as  big 
as  a  white-tail  deer;  a 
buck  of  which  Kermit 
had  killed  two  speci- 
mens. The  bushbuck 
is  a  wicked  fighter,  no 
other  buck  of  its  size  be- 
ing as  dangerous;  which 
makes  the  helplessness 
and  timidity  of  its  huge 
relative  all  the  more 
striking. 

I  had  kept  four  Ki- 
kuyus  with  me  to  ac- 
company me  on  my 
hunts  and  carry  in  the  skins  and  meat.  They  were  with  me 
on  this  occasion ;  and  it  was  amusing  to  see  how  my 
four  regular  attendants,  Bakhari  and  Gouvimali  the  gun- 
bearers,  Simba  the  sais,  and  Kiboko  the  skinner,  looked 
down  on  their  wild  and  totally  uncivilized  brethren.  They 
would  not  associate  with  the  "shenzis,"  as  they  called 
them;   that  is,  savages  or  bush  people.     But  the  *'shenzis" 


An  oryx  bull 
From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  331 

always  amused  and  interested  me;  and  this  was  especially 
true  on  the  afternoon  in  question.  Soon  after  we  had 
started  campward  with  the  skin  and  meat  of  the  oryx, 
we  encountered  a  succession  of  thunder-storms.  The  rain 
came  down  in  a  deluge,  so  that  the  water  stood  ankle  deep 
on  the  flats,  the  lightning  flashed  continuously  on  every 
side,  and  the  terrific  peals  of  thunder  made  one  continuous 
roll.  At  first  it  maddened  my  horse;  but  the  uninter- 
rupted blaze  and  roar,  just  because  uninterrupted,  ended  by 
making  him  feel  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  done,  and  he 
plodded  stolidly  forward  through  the  driving  storm.  My 
regular  attendants  accepted  it  with  an  entire  philosophy, 
which  was  finally  copied  by  the  Kikuyus,  who  at  first  felt 
frightened.  One  of  them  had  an  old  umbrella  which  he 
shared  with  a  crony.  He  himself  was  carrying  the  mara- 
bou stork;  his  crony  had  long  strips  of  raw  oryx  meat 
wound  in  a  swollen  girdle  about  his  waist;  neither  had 
a  stitch  on  save  the  blankets  which  were  wrapped  round 
their  throats;  and  they  clasped  each  other  in  a  tight 
embrace  as  they  walked  along  under  the  battered  old 
umbrella. 

In  this  desolate  and  lonely  land  the  majesty  of  the 
storms  impressed  on  the  beholder  a  sense  of  awe  and 
solemn  exaltation.  Tossing  their  crests,  and  riven  by 
lightning,  they  gathered  in  their  wrath  from  every  quarter 
of  the  heavens,  and  darkness  was  before  and  under  them; 
then,  in  the  lull  of  a  moment,  they  might  break  apart, 
v/hile  the  sun  turned  the  rain  to  silver  and  the  rainbows 
were  set  in  the  sky;  but  always  they  gathered  again,  men- 
acing and  mighty, — for  the  promise  of  the  bow  was  never 
kept,  and  ever  the  clouds  returned  after  the  rain.  Once 
as  I  rode  facing  Kenia  the  clouds  tore  asunder,  to  right  and 
left,  and  the  mountain  towered  between,  while  across  its 
base  was  flung  a  radiant  arch.  But  almost  at  once  the 
many-colored  glory  was  dimmed;  for  in  splendor  and 
terror  the  storm  strode  in  front,  and  shrouded  all  things 
from  sight  in  thunder-shattered  sheets  of  rain. 


332  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

These  days  alone  in  the  wilderness  went  by  very  pleas- 
antly, and,  as  it  was  for  not  too  long,  I  thoroughly  enjoyed 
being  entirely  by  myself,  so  far  as  white  men  were  con- 
cerned. By  this  time  I  had  become  really  attached  to  my 
native  followers,  who  looked  after  my  interest  and  comfort 
in  every  way;  and  in  return  I  kept  them  supplied  with 
plenty  of  food,  saw  that  they  were  well  clothed,  and  forced 
them  to  gather  enough  firewood  to  keep  their  tents  dry  and 
warm  at  night — for  cold,  rainy  weather  is  always  hard  upon 
them. 

Ali,  my  faithful  head  tent  boy,  and  Shemlani  his  as- 
sistant— poor  Bill  the  Kikuyu  had  left  because  of  an  in- 
tricate row  with  his  fellows — were  both,  as  they  proudly 
informed  me,  Arabs.  On  the  East  African  coast  the  so- 
called  Arabs  almost  all  have  native  blood  in  them  and 
speak  Swahili;  the  curious,  newly  created  language  of  the 
descendants  of  the  natives  whom  the  Arabs  originally  en- 
slaved, and  who  themselves  may  have  in  their  veins  a  little 
Arab  blood;  in  fact,  the  dividing  line  between  Swahili 
and  Arab  becomes  impracticable  for  an  outsider  to  draw 
where,  as  is  generally  the  case,  it  is  patent  that  the  blood  of 
both  races  is  mixed  to  a  degree  at  which  it  is  only  possible 
to  guess.  Ali  spoke  some  English;  and  he  and  Shem- 
lani were  devoted  and  eflficient  servitors.  Bakhari  the  gun- 
bearer  was  a  Swahili,  quite  fearless  with  dangerous  game, 
rather  sullen,  and  unmoved  by  any  emotion  that  I  could 
ever  discover.  He  spoke  a  little  English,  but  it  could  not  be 
called  idiomatic.  One  day  we  saw  two  ostriches,  a  cock 
and  a  hen,  with  their  chicks,  and  Bakhari  with  some  ex- 
citement said,  "Look,  sah!  ostrich!  bull,  cow,  and  pups!" 
The  other  gun-bearer,  Gouvimali,  in  some  ways  an  even 
better  hunter,  and  always  good-tempered,  knew  but  one 
English  phrase;  regularly  every  afternoon  or  evening,  after 
cleaning  the  rifle  he  had  carried,  he  would  say,  as  he  left 
the  tent,  his  face  wreathed  in  smiles,  "G-o-o-d-e-bye!" 
Gouvimali  was  a  Wakamba,  as  were  Simba  and  my  other 
sais,  M'nyassa,  who  had  taken  the  place  of  Hamisi  (Hamisi 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  333 

had  broken  down  in  health,  his  legs,  as  he  assured  me, 
becoming  "very  sick").  The  cook,  Roberti,  was  a  mission 
boy,  a  Christian;  we  had  several  Christians  with  the  safari, 
one  being  a  headman,  and  all  did  excellently.  I  mention 
this  because  one  so  often  hears  it  said  that  mission  boys 
turn  out  worthless.  Most  of  our  men  were  heathens;  and 
of  course  many,  both  of  the  Christians  and  the  Moham- 
medans, were  rather  thinly  veneered  with  the  religions  they 
respectively  professed. 

When  in  the  morning  we  started  on  our  hunt  my  gun- 
bearers  and  sais,  and  the  skinners,  if  any  were  along, 
walked  silently  behind  me,  on  the  lookout  for  game.  Re- 
turning, they  were  apt  to  get  in  front,  to  pilot  me  back  to 
camp.  If,  as  at  this  time  was  generally  the  case,  we  re- 
turned with  our  heads  bent  to  the  rushing  rain,  they  trudged 
sturdily  ahead  in  dripping  silence.  If  the  weather  was  clear 
the  spirits  of  the  stalwart  fellows  were  sure  to  rise  until  they 
found  some  expression.  The  Wakamba  might  break  into 
song;  or  they  might  all  talk  together  in  Swahili,  recounting 
the  adventures  of  the  day,  and  chaffing  one  another  with 
uproarious  laughter  about  any  small  misadventure;  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  direction  of  camp  being 
always  a  subject,  first  for  earnest  discussion,  and  then  for 
much  mirth  at  the  expense  of  whomever  the  event  proved 
mistaken. 

My  two  horses,  when  I  did  not  use  them,  grazed  con- 
tentedly throughout  the  day  near  the  little  thorn  boma 
which  surrounded  our  tents;  and  at  nightfall  the  friendly 
things  came  within  it  of  their  own  accord  to  be  given  their 
feed  of  corn  and  be  put  in  their  own  tent.  When  the  sun 
was  hot  they  were  tormented  by  biting  flies;  but  their  work 
was  easy,  and  they  were  v/ell  treated  and  throve.  In  the 
daytime  vultures,  kites,  and  white-necked  ravens  came 
round  camp,  and  after  nightfall  jackals  wailed  and  hyenas 
uttered  their  weird  cries  as  they  prowled  outside  the  thorn 
walls.  Twice,  at  midnight,  we  heard  the  ominous  sighing 
or  moaning  of  a  hungry  lion,  and  I  looked  to  my  rifle,  which 


334 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


always  stood,  loaded,  at  the  head  of  my  bed.  But  on 
neither  occasion  did  he  come  near  us.  Every  night  a  fire 
was  kept  burning  in  the  entrance  to  the  boma,  and  the 
three  askaris  watched  in  turn,  with  instructions  to  call  me 

if  there   was    any 
need. 

I  easily  kept  the 
camp  in  meat,  as  I 
had  guessed  that  I 
could  do.  My  men 
feasted  on  oryx 
and  eland,  while 
I  reserved  the 
tongues  and  ten- 
derloins for  myself. 
Each  day  I  hunted 
for  eight  or  ten 
hours,  something 
of  interest  always 
happening.  I 
would  not  shoot 
at  the  gazelles; 
and  the  game  I 
did  want  was  so 
shy  that  almost  all 
my  shots  were  at 
long  range,  and 
consequently  a 
number  of  them 
did  not  hit.  However,  I  came  on  my  best  oryx  in  rather 
thick  bush,  and  killed  it  at  a  hundred  and  twentj^-five  yards, 
as  it  turned  with  a  kind  of  sneeze  of  alarm  or  curiosity,  and 
stood  broadside  to  me,  the  sun  glinting  on  its  handsome 
coat  and  polished  black  horns.  One  of  my  Kikuyu  followers 
packed  the  skin  entire  to  camp.  I  had  more  trouble  with 
another  oryx,  wounding  it  one  evening  at  three  hundred 
and  fifty  yards,  and  next  morning  following  the  trail  and 


Ivory-nut  palms  on  the  Guaso  Nyero 
From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


THE   GUASO    iXYERO  835 

after  much  hard  work  and  a  couple  of  misses  kilhng  it  with 
a  shot  at  three  hundred  yards.  On  September  2,  I  found 
two  newly  born  oryx  calves.  The  color  of  the  oryx  made 
them  less  visible  than  hartebeest  when  a  long  way  off  on 
the  dry  plains.  I  noticed  that  whenever  we  saw  them 
mixed  in  a  herd  with  zebra,  it  was  the  zebra  that  first  struck 
our  eyes.  But  in  bright  sunlight,  in  bush,  I  also  noticed 
that  the  zebra  themselves  were  hard  to  see. 

One  afternoon,  while  skirting  the  edge  of  a  marsh 
teeming  with  waders  and  water-fowl,  I  came  across  four 
stately  Kavirondo  cranes,  specimens  of  which  bird  the 
naturalists  had  been  particularly  anxious  to  secure.  They 
were  not  very  shy  for  cranes,  but  they  would  not  keep  still, 
and  I  missed  a  shot  with  the  Springfield  as  they  walked 
along  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  ahead  of  me.  How- 
ever, they  were  unwise  enough  to  circle  round  me  when 
they  rose,  still  keeping  the  same  distance,  and  all  the  time 
uttering  their  musical  call,  while  their  great  wings  flapped 
in  measured  beats.  Wing  shooting  with  the  rifle,  even 
at  such  large  birds  of  such  slow  and  regular  flight,  is  never 
easy,  and  they  were  rather  far  off;  but  with  the  last  car- 
tridge in  my  magazine — the  fifth — I  brought  one  whirling 
down  through  the  air,  the  bullet  having  pierced  his  body. 
It  was  a  most  beautiful  bird,  black,  white,  and  chestnut, 
with  an  erect  golden  crest,  and  long,  lanceolate  gray  feathers 
on  the  throat  and  breast. 

There  were  waterbuck  and  impalla  in  this  swamp.  I 
tried  to  get  a  bull  of  the  former  but  failed.  Several  times 
I  was  within  fifty  yards  of  doe  impalla  and  cow  water- 
buck,  with  their  young,  and  watched  them  as  they  fed  and 
rested,  quite  unconscious  of  my  presence.  Twice  I  saw  stein- 
buck,  on  catching  sight  of  me,  lie  down,  hoping  to  escape 
observation.  The  red  coat  of  the  steinbuck  is  rather  con- 
spicuous, much  more  so  than  the  coat  of  the  duiker;  yet  it 
often  tries  to  hide  from  possible  foes. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  September  3,  Cuninghame  and 
Heller,   with   the   main   safari,   joined   me,   and   I   greeted 


336  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

them  joyfully;  while  my  men  were  equally  pleased  to  see 
their  fellows,  each  shaking  hands  with  his  especial  friends. 
Next  morning  we  started  toward  Meru,  heading  north-east, 
toward  the  foot-hills  of  Kenia.  The  vegetation  changed 
its  character  as  we  rose.  By  the  stream  where  we  had 
camped  grew  the  great  thorn-trees  with  yellow-green  trunks 
which  we  had  become  accustomed  to  associate  with  the 
presence  of  herds  of  game.  Out  on  the  dry  flats  were 
other  thorns,  weazened  little  trees,  or  mere  scrawny  bushes, 
with  swellings  like  bulbs  on  the  branches  and  twigs,  and 
the  long  thorns  far  more  conspicuous  than  the  scanty  foli- 
age; though  what  there  was  of  this  foliage,  now  brilliant 
green,  was  exquisite  in  hue  and  form,  the  sprays  of  delicate 
little  leaves  being  as  fine  as  the  daintiest  lace.  On  the 
foot-hills  all  these  thorn-trees  vanished.  We  did  not  go  as 
high  as  the  forest  belt  proper  (here  narrow,  while  above 
it  the  bamboos  covered  the  mountain  side),  but  tongues  of 
juniper  forest  stretched  down  along  the  valleys  which  we 
crossed,  and  there  were  large  patches  of  coarse  deer  fern, 
while  among  many  unknown  flowers  we  saw  blue  lupins, 
ox-eye  daisies^  and  clover.  That  night  we  camped  so  high 
that  it  was  really  cold,  and  we  welcomed  the  roaring  fires 
of  juniper  logs. 

We  rose  at  sunrise.  It  was  a  glorious  morning,  clear 
and  cool,  and  as  we  sat  at  breakfast,  the  table  spread  in 
the  open  on  the  dew-drenched  grass,  we  saw  in  the  south- 
east the  peak  of  Kenia,  and  through  the  high,  transparent 
air  the  snow-fields  seemed  so  close  as  almost  to  dazzle  our 
eyes.  To  the  north  and  west  we  looked  far  out  over  the 
wide,  rolling  plains  to  a  wilderness  of  mountain  ranges, 
barren  and  jagged.  All  that  day  and  the  next  we  journeyed 
eastward,  almost  on  the  equator.  At  noon  the  overhead 
sun  burned  with  torrid  heat;  but  with  the  twilight — short 
compared  to  the  long  northern  twilights,  but  not  nearly  as 
short  as  tropical  twilights  are  often  depicted — came  the  cold, 
and  each  night  the  frost  was  heavy.  The  country  was  un- 
tenanted by  man.     In  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  we 


THE  GUASO   NYERO 


337 


began  to  go  downhill,  and  hour  by  hour  the  flora  changed. 

At  last  we  came  to  a  broad  belt  of  woodland,  where  the 

strange  trees  of  many  kinds  grew  tall  and  thick.     Among 

them   were    camphor-trees,    and    trees    with    gouty   branch 

tips,  bearing  leaves 

like    those   of    the 

black  walnut,  and 

panicles    of    lilac 

flowers,  changing 

into   brown  seed 

vessels;    and  other 

trees,  with  clusters 

of  purple   flowers, 

and    the    seeds    or 

nuts  enclosed  in 

hard  pods  or  seed 

vessels    like    huge 

sausages. 

On  the  other 
side  of  the  forest 
we  came  suddenly 
out  on  the  culti- 
vated fields  of  the 
Wa-Meru,  who, 
like  the  Kikuyu, 
till  the  soil;  and 
among  them,  far- 
ther down,  was 
Meru    boma,   its 

neat,  picturesque  buildings  beautifully  placed  among  green 
groves  and  irrigated  fields,  and  looking  out  from  its  cool 
elevation  over  the  hot  valleys  beneath.  It  is  one  of  the 
prettiest  spots  in  East  Africa.  We  were  more  than  hos- 
pitably received  by  the  commissioner,  Mr.  Home,  who 
had  been  a  cow-puncher  in  Wyoming  for  seven  years — 
so  that  naturally  we  had  much  in  common.  He  had  built 
the  station  himself,  and  had  tamed  the  wild  tribes  around 

22 


The  Guaso  Nyero 
From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


tm  AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 

by  mingled  firmness  and  good  treatment;    and  he  was  a 
mighty  hunter,  and  helped  us  in  every  way. 

Here  we  met  Kermit  and  Tarlton,  and  heard  all  about 
their  hunt.  They  had  been  away  from  us  for  three  weeks 
and  a  half,  along  the  Guaso  Nyero,  and  had  enjoyed  first- 
rate  luck.  Kermit  had  been  particularly  interested  in  a 
caravan  they  had  met,  consisting  of  wild  spear-bearing 
Borani,  people  like  Somalis,  who  were  bringing  down  scores 
of  camels  and  hundreds  of  small  horses  to  sell  at  Nairobi. 
They  had  come  from  the  north,  near  the  outlying  Abyssin- 
ian lands,  and  the  caravan  was  commanded  by  an  Arab  of 
stately  and  courteous  manners.  Such  an  extensive  cara- 
van journey  was  rare  in  the  old  days  before  English  rule; 
but  one  of  the  results  of  the  *'Pax  Europaica,"  wherever 
it  obtains  in  German,  French,  or  English  Africa,  is  a  great 
increase  of  intercourse,  commercial  and  social,  among  the 
different  tribes,  even  where  widely  separated.  This  cara- 
van had  been  followed  by  lions;  and  a  day  or  two  after- 
ward Kermit  and  Tarlton  ran  into  what  were  probably 
these  very  lions.  There  were  eleven  of  them:  a  male  with  a 
heavy  mane,  three  lionesses,  and  seven  cubs,  some  of  them 
about  half  grown.  As  Kermit  and  Tarlton  galloped  after 
them,  the  lion  took  the  lead,  the  cubs  coming  in  the  middle, 
while  the  three  lionesses  loped  along  In  the  rear,  guarding 
their  young.  The  lion  cared  little  for  his  wives  and  off- 
spring, and  gradually  drew  ahead  of  them,  while  the  two 
horsemen,  riding  at  full  speed,  made  a  wide  detour  round 
the  others  in  order  to  reach  him;  so  that  at  last  they  got 
between  him  and  the  ten  lionesses  and  cubs,  the  big  lion 
coming  first,  the  horsemen  next,  and  then  the  lesser  lions, 
all  headed  the  same  way.  As  the  horse-hooves  thundered 
closer  the  lion  turned  to  bay.  Kermit — whose  horse  had 
once  fallen  with  him  in  the  chase — and  Tarlton  leaped 
off  their  horses,  and  Kermit  hit  the  lion  with  his  first  shot, 
and,  as  it  started  to  charge,  mortally  wounded  it  with  a 
second  bullet.  It  turned  and  tried  to  reach  cover,  and 
Tarlton  stopped  it  with  a  third  shot;   for  there  was  no  time 


THE   GUASO   NYERO 


339 


to  lose,  as  they  wished  to  tackle  the  other  lions.  After  a 
sharp  gallop  they  rounded  up  the  lionesses  and  cubs. 
Kermit  killed  one  large  cub,  which  they  mistook  for  a 
lioness;  wounded  a  lioness  which  for  the  time  being  es- 
caped; killed  another  with  a  single  bullet  from  his  30-40 
Winchester — for  the  others  he  used  his  .405  Winchester — 
and  hit  the  third  as  she  crouched  facing  him  at  two  hundred 


A  Boran  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

yards.  She  at  once  came  in  at  full  speed,  making  a  most 
determined  charge.  Kermit  and  Tarlton  were  standing 
near  their  horses.  The  lioness  came  on  with  great  bounds 
so  that  Kermit  missed  her  twice,  but  broke  her  shoulder  high 
up  when  she  was  but  thirty  yards  off.  She  fell  on  her  head 
and,  on  rising,  galloped,  not  at  the  men,  but  at  the  horses,  who, 
curiously  enough,  paid  no  heed  to  her.  Tarlton  stopped  her 
with  a  bullet  in  the  nick  of  time,  just  before  she  reached 
them,  and  with  another  bullet  Kermit  killed  her.     Two  days 


340  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

later  they  came  on  the  remaining  cubs  and  the  wounded 
Honess,  and  Kermit  killed  the  latter;  but  they  let  the  cubs 
go,  feeling  it  unsportsmanlike  to  kill  them — a  feeling  which 
I  am  by  no  means  certain  I  share,  for  lions  are  scourges 
not  only  to  both  wild  and  tame  animals,  but  to  man  himself. 
Kermit  also  rode  down  and  killed  two  cheetahs  and  a 
serval,  and  got  a  bad  tumble  while  chasing  a  jackal,  his 
horse  turning  a  complete  somersault  through  a  thorny  bush. 
This  made  seven  cheetahs  that  he  had  killed,  a  record  un- 
equalled for  any  other  East  African  trip  of  the  same  length; 
and  the  finding  and  galloping  down  of  these  cheetahs — going 
at  breakneck  speed  over  any  and  every  kind  of  ground, 
and  then  shooting  them  either  from  foot  or  horseback — 
made  one  of  the  noteworthy  features  of  our  trip.  One 
of  these  two  cheetahs  had  just  killed  a  steinbuck.  The 
serval  was  with  its  mate,  and  Kermit  watched  them  for 
some  time  through  his  glasses  before  following  them.  There 
was  one  curious  feature  of  their  conduct.  One  of  them 
was  playing  about,  now  near  the  other,  now  leaving  it; 
and  near  by  was  a  bustard,  which  it  several  times  pretended 
to  stalk,  crawling  toward  it  a  few  yards,  and  then  standing 
up  and  walking  away.  The  bustard  paid  no  heed  to  it; 
and,  more  singular  still,  two  white-necked  ravens  lit  close 
to  it,  within  a  few  yards  on  either  side;  the  serval  sitting 
erect  between  them,  seemingly  quite  unconcerned  for  a 
couple  of  minutes,  and  then  strolling  off  without  making 
any  effort  to  molest  them.  I  can  give  no  explanation  of 
the  incident;  it  illustrates  afresh  the  need  of  ample  and 
well-recorded  observations  by  trustworthy  field  naturalists, 
who  shall  go  into  the  wilderness  before  the  big  game,  the 
big  birds,  and  the  beasts  of  prey  vanish.  Those  pages  of 
the  book  of  nature  which  are  best  worth  reading  can  best  be 
read  far  from  the  dwellings  of  civilized  man;  and  for  their 
full  interpretation  we  need  the  services,  not  of  one  man,  but 
of  many  men,  who  in  addition  to  the  gift  of  accurate  obser- 
vation shall  if  possible  possess  the  power  fully,  accurately, 
and  with  vividness  to  write  about  what  they  have  observed. 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  341 

Kermit  shot  many  other  animals,  among  them  three 
fine  oryx,  one  of  which  he  rode  down  on  horseback,  ma- 
noeuvring so  that  at  last  it  galloped  fairly  closely  across  his 
front,  whereupon  he  leaped  off  his  horse  for  the  shot;  an 
ardwolf  (a  miniature  hyena  with  very  weak  teeth)  which 
bolted  from  its  hole  at  his  approach;  gerenuk,  small  ante- 
lope with  necks  relatively  as  long  as  giraffes',  which  are 
exceedingly  shy  and  difficult  to  obtain;  and  the  Gravy's 
zebra,  as  big  as  a  small  horse.  Most  of  his  hunting  was 
done  alone,  either  on  foot  or  on  horseback;  on  a  long  run 
or  all-day  tramp  no  other  member  of  our  outfit,  black  or 
white,  could  quite  keep  up  with  him.  He  and  Tarlton 
found  where  a  leopard  had  killed  and  partly  eaten  a  nearly 
full-grown  individual  of  this  big  zebra.  He  also  shot  a 
twelve-foot  crocodile.  The  ugly,  formidable  brute  had  in  its 
belly  sticks,  stones,  the  claws  of  a  cheetah,  the  hoofs  of  an 
impalla,  and  the  big  bones  of  an  eland,  together  with  the 
shell  plates  of  one  of  the  large  river-turtles;  evidently  it  took 
toll  indifferently  from  among  its  fellow-denizens  of  the  river, 
and  from  among  the  creatures  that  came  to  drink,  whether 
beasts  of  pasture  or  the  flesh-eaters  that  preyed  upon  them. 

He  also  shot  three  buffalo  bulls,  Tarlton  helping  him  to 
finish  them  off,  for  they  are  tough  animals,  tenacious  of 
life  and  among  the  most  dangerous  of  African  game.  One 
turned  to  charge,  but  was  disabled  by  the  bullets  of  both 
of  them  before  he  could  come  on.  Tarlton,  whose  experi- 
ence in  the  hunting  field  against  dangerous  game  had  been 
large,  always  maintained  that,  although  lion  hunting  was 
the  most  dangerous  sport,  because  a  hunted  lion  was  far 
more  apt  to  charge  than  any  other  animal,  yet  when  a 
buffalo  bull  did  charge  he  was  more  dangerous  than  a  lion, 
because  harder  to  kill  or  turn.  Where  zebra  and  other 
game  are  abundant,  as  on  the  Athi  Plains,  lion  do  not  med- 
dle with  such  formidable  quarry  as  buffalo;  on  Heatley's 
farm  lions  sometimes  made  their  lairs  in  the  same  papyrus 
swamp  with  the  buffalo,  but  hardly  ever  molested  them. 
In  many  places,  however,  the  lion  preys  largely,  and  in  some 


34^  AFRICAN   GAME    1  RAILS 

places  chiefly,  on  the  buffalo.  The  hunters  of  wide  ex- 
perience with  whom  I  conversed,  men  like  Tarlton,  Cun- 
inghame,  and  Home,  were  a  unit  in  stating  that  where  a 
single  lion  killed  a  buffalo  they  had  always  found  that  the 
buffalo  was  a  cow  or  immature  bull,  and  that  whenever 
they  had  found  a  full-grovv'n  bull  thus  killed,  several  lions 
had  been  engaged  in  the  job.  Home  had  once  found  the 
carcass  of  a  big  bull  which  had  been  killed  and  eaten  by 
lions,  and  near  by  lay  a  dead  lioness  with  a  great  rip  in  her 
side,  made  by  the  buffalo's  horn  in  the  fight  in  which  he 
succumbed.  Even  a  buffalo  cow,  if  fairly  pitted  against  a 
single  lion,  would  probably  stand  an  even  chance;  but  of 
course  the  fight  never  is  fair,  the  lion's  aim  being  to  take 
his  prey  unawares  and  get  a  death  grip  at  the  outset;  and 
then,  unless  his  hold  is  broken,  he  cannot  be  seriously 
injured. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  African  buffalo  were  smitten 
with  one  of  those  overwhelming  disasters  which  are  ever 
occurring  and  recurring  in  the  animal  world.  Africa  is  not 
only  the  land,  beyond  all  others,  subject  to  odious  and  ter- 
rible insect  plagues  of  every  conceivable  kind,  but  is  also 
peculiarly  liable  to  cattle  murrains.  About  the  year  1889,  or 
shortly  before,  a  virulent  form  of  rinderpest  started  among 
the  domestic  cattle  and  wild  buffalo  almost  at  the  northern 
border  of  the  buffalo's  range,  and  within  the  next  few 
years  worked  gradually  southward  to  beyond  the  Zambesi. 
It  wrought  dreadful  havoc  among  the  cattle,  and  in  conse- 
quence decimated  by  starvation  many  of  the  cattle-owning 
tribes;  it  killed  many  of  the  large  bovine  antelopes,  and  it 
wellnigh  exterminated  the  buffalo.  In  many  places  the 
buffalo  herds  were  absolutely  wiped  out,  the  species  be- 
ing utterly  destroyed  throughout  great  tracts  of  territory, 
notably  in  East  Africa;  in  other  places  the  few  survivors 
did  not  represent  the  hundredth  part  of  those  that  had 
died.  For  years  the  East  African  buffalo  ceased  to  exist 
as  a  beast  of  the  chase.  But  all  the  time  it  was  slowly 
regaining  the  lost  ground,  and  during  the  last  decade  its 


THE   GUASO   NYERO 


343 


increase  has  been  rapid.  Unlike  the  slow-breeding  ele- 
phant and  rhinoceros,  buffalo  multiply  apace,  like  domes- 
tic cattle,  and  in  many  places  the  herds  have  now  become 
too  numerous.  Their  rapid  recovery  from  a  calamity  so 
terrific  is  interesting  and  instructive.*  Doubtless  for  many 
years  after  man,  in  recognizably  human  form,  appeared  on 
this  planet,  he  played  but  a  small  part  in  the  destruction 
of  big  animals,   compared   to   plague,   to   insect   pests  and 


A  domesticated  young  male  eland  at  Meru 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

microbes,  to  drought,  flood,  earth  upheaval,  and  change  of 
temperature.  But  during  the  geological  moment  covering 
the  few  thousand  years  of  recorded  history  man  has  been 
not  merely  the  chief,  but  practically  the  sole  factor  in  the 
extermination  of  big  mammals  and  birds. 

At  and  near  Meru  boma  we  spent  a  fortnight  hunting 
elephant  and  rhinoceros,  as  described  in  the  preceding 
chapter.     While  camped  by  the  boma  white-necked  vultu- 

*0n  our  trip  along  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  heard  that  there  had  been  a  fresh  out- 
break of  rinderpest  among  the  buffalo;  I  hope  it  will  not  prove  such  a  hideous 
disaster. 


344  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

rine  ravens  and  black  and  white  crows  came  familiarly 
around  the  tents.  A  young  eland  bull,  quite  as  tame  as  a 
domestic  cow,  was  picketed,  now  here,  now  there,  about  us. 
Home  was  breaking  it  to  drive  in  a  cart. 

During  our  stay  another  district  commissioner,  Mr. 
Piggott,  came  over  on  a  short  visit;  it  was  he  who  the  pre- 
ceding year,  while  at  Neri,  had  been  obliged  to  undertake 
the  crusade  against  the  rhinos,  because,  quite  unprovoked, 
they  had  killed  various  natives.  He  told  us  that  at  the 
same  time  a  man-eating  leopard  made  its  appearance,  and 
killed  seven  children.  It  did  not  attack  at  night,  but  in  the 
daytime,  its  victims  being  the  little  boys  who  were  watching 
the  flocks  of  goats;  sometimes  it  took  a  boy  and  sometimes 
a  goat.  Two  old  men  killed  it  with  spears  on  the  occasion 
of  its  taking  the  last  victim.  It  was  a  big  male,  very  old, 
much  emaciated,  and  the  teeth  worn  to  stumps.  Home 
told  us  that  a  month  or  two  before  our  arrival  at  Meru  a 
leopard  had  begun  a  career  of  woman-killing.  It  killed 
one  woman  by  a  bite  in  the  throat,  and  ate  the  body.  It 
sprang  on  and  badly  wounded  another,  but  was  driven  off 
in  time  to  save  her  life.  This  was  probably  the  leopard 
Heller  trapped  and  shot,  in  the  very  locality  where  it  had 
committed  its  ravages;  it  was  an  old  male,  but  very  thin, 
with  worn  teeth.  In  these  cases  the  reason  for  the  beast's 
action  was  plain:  in  each  instance  a  big,  savage  male 
had  found  his  powers  failing,  and  had  been  driven  to  prey 
on  the  females  and  young  of  the  most  helpless  of  animals, 
man.  But  another  attack,  of  which  Piggott  told  us,  was 
apparently  due  to  the  queer  individual  freakishness  always 
to  be  taken  into  account  in  dealing  with  wild  beasts.  A 
Masai  chief,  with  two  or  three  followers,  was  sitting  eating 
under  a  bush,  when,  absolutely  without  warning,  a  leopard 
sprang  on  him,  clawed  him  on  the  head  and  hand,  without 
biting  him,  and  as  instantly  disappeared.  Piggott  attended 
to  the  wounded  man. 

In  riding  in  the  neighborhood,  through  the  tall  dry 
grass,  which  would  often  rattle  in  the  wind,  I  was  amused 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  345 

to  find  that  if  I  suddenly  heard  the  sound  I  was  apt  to  stand 
alertly  on  guard,  quite  unconsciously  and  instinctively, 
because  it  suggested  the  presence  of  a  rattlesnake.  During 
the  years  I  lived  on  a  ranch  in  the  West  I  was  always  hear- 
ing and  killing  rattlesnakes,  and  although  I  knew  well  that 
no  African  snake  carries  a  rattle,  my  subconscious  senses 
always  threw  me  to  attention  if  there  was  a  sound  resembling 
that  made  by  a  rattler.  Tarlton,  by  the  way,  told  me  an 
interesting  anecdote  of  a  white-tailed  mongoose  and  a 
snake.  The  mongoose  was  an  inmate  of  the  house  where 
he  dwelt  with  his  brother  and  was  quite  tame.  One  day 
they  brought  in  a  rather  small  puff  adder,  less  than  two  feet 
long,  put  it  on  the  floor,  and  showed  it  to  the  mongoose. 
Instantly  the  latter  sprang  toward  the  snake,  every  hair  in 
its  body  and  tail  on  end,  and  halted  five  feet  away,  while 
the  snake  lay  in  curves  like  the  thong  of  a  whip,  its  head 
turned  toward  the  mongoose.  Both  were  motionless  for  a 
moment.  Then  suddenly  the  mongoose  seemed  to  lose  all 
its  excitement;  its  hair  smoothed  down;  and  it  trotted  qui- 
etly up  to  the  snake,  seized  it  by  the  middle  of  the  back — 
it  always  devoured  its  food  with  savage  voracity — ^and  set- 
tled comfortably  down  to  its  meal.  Like  lightning  the 
snake's  head  whipped  round.  It  drove  its  fangs  deep  into 
the  snout  or  lip  of  the  mongoose,  hung  on  for  a  moment, 
and  then  repeated  the  blow.  The  mongoose  paid  not  the 
least  attention,  but  went  on  munching  the  snake's  body, 
severed  its  backbone  at  once,  and  then  ate  it  all  up,  head, 
fangs,  poison,  and  everything;  and  it  never  showed  a  sign 
of  having  received  any  damage  in  the  encounter.  I  had 
always  understood  that  the  mongoose  owed  its  safety  to  its 
agility  in  avoiding  the  snake's  stroke,  and  I  can  offer  no 
explanation  of  this  particular  incident. 

There  were  eland  on  the  high  downs  not  far  from  Meru, 
apparently  as  much  at  home  in  the  wet,  cold  climate  as  on 
the  hot  plains.  Their  favorite  gait  is  the  trot.  An  elephant 
moves  at  a  walk  or  rather  rack;  a  giraffe  has  a  very  pecul- 
iar leisurely  looking  gallop,  both  hind  legs  coming  forward 


840  AFRICAN   GAI^IE   TRAILS 

nearly  at  the  same  time,  outside  the  forelegs;  rhino  and 
buffalo  trot  and  run.  Eland  when  alarmed  bound  with  as- 
tonishing agility  for  such  large  beasts — a  trait  not  shown  by 
other  large  antelope,  like  oryx — and  then  gallop  for  a  short 
distance;  but  the  big  bulls  speedily  begin  to  trot,  and  the 
cows  and  younger  bulls  gradually  also  drop  back  into  the 
trot.  In  fact,  their  gaits  are  in  essence  those  of  the  wapiti, 
which  also  prefer  the  trot,  although  wapiti  never  make  the 
bounds  that  eland  do  at  the  start.  The  moose,  however, 
is  more  essentially  a  trotter  than  either  eland  or  wapiti; 
a  very  old  and  heavy  moose  never,  when  at  speed,  goes 
at  any  other  gait  than  a  trot,  except  that  under  the  press- 
ure of  great  and  sudden  danger  it  may  perhaps  make  a  few 
bounds.* 

While  at  Meru  boma  I  received  a  cable,  forwarded  by 
native  runners,  telling  me  of  Peary's  wonderful  feat  in 
reaching  the  North  Pole.  Of  course  we  were  all  over- 
joyed, and  in  particular  we  Americans  could  not  but  feel 
a  special  pride  in  the  fact  that  it  was  a  fellow-countryman 
who  had  performed  the  great  and  noteworthy  achievement. 
A  little  more  than  a  year  had  passed  since  I  said  good-by 
to  Peary  as  he  started  on  his  Arctic  quest;  after  leaving 
New  York  in  the  Roosevelt,  he  had  put  into  Oyster  Bay 
to  see  us,  and  we  had  gone  aboard  the  Roosevelt,  had  ex- 
amined with  keen  interest  how  she  was  fitted  for  the  boreal 
seas  and  the  boreal  winter,  and  had  then  waved  farewell 
to  the  tall,  gaunt  explorer,  as  he  stood  looking  toward  us 
over  the  side  of  the  stout  little  ship.f 

On  September  21,  Kermit  and  Tarlton  started  south- 

*A  perfectly  trustworthy  Maine  hunter  informed  me  that  in  the  spring  he  had 
once  seen  in  the  snow  where  a  bear  had  sprung  at  two  big  moose,  and  they  had 
bounded  for  several  rods  before  settling  into  the  tremendous  trot  which  is  their 
normal  gait  when  startled.  I  have  myself  seen  signs  that  showed  where  a  young 
moose  had  galloped  for  some  rods  under  similar  circumstances;  and  I  have  seen  big 
moose  calves,  or  half-grown  moose,  in  captivity  gallop  a  few  yards  in  play,  although 
rarely.  But  the  normal,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances  the  only,  gait  of  the  moose 
is  the  trot. 

t  When  1  reached  Neri  I  received  from  Peary  the  following  cable:  "Your  fare- 
well was  a  roval  mascot.    The  Pole  is  ours. — Pearv." 


THE   (ilASO   NM:K() 


347 


west,  toward  Lake  Hannington,  and  Cuninghame  and  I 
north  toward  the  Guaso  Nyero.  Heller  was  under  the 
weather,  and  we  left  him  to  spend  a  few  days  at  Meru 
boma,  and  then  to  take  in  the  elephant  skins  and  other 
museum  specimens  to  Nairobi. 

As  Cuninghame  and  I  were  to  be  nearly  four  weeks  in 


Helping  a  donkey  across  tlie  stream 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 

a  country  with  no  food  supplies,  we  took  a  small  donkey 
safari  to  carry  the  extra  food  for  our  porters — for  in  these 
remote  places  the  difficulty  of  taking  in  many  hundred 
pounds  of  salt,  as  well  as  skin  tents,  and  the  difficulty 
of  bringing  out  the  skeletons  and  skins  of  the  big  animals 
collected,  make  such  an  expedition  as  ours,  undertaken 
for  scientific  purposes,  far  more  cumbersome  and  unwieldy 


348  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

than  a  mere  hunting  trip,  or  even  than  a  voyage  of  explo- 
ration, and  trebles  the  labor. 

A  long  day's  march  brought  us  down  to  the  hot  country. 
That  evening  we  pitched  our  tents  by  a  rapid  brook,  bor- 
dered by  palms,  whose  long,  stiff  fronds  rustled  ceaselessly 
in  the  wind.  Monkeys  swung  in  the  tree  tops.  On  the 
march  I  shot  a  Kavirondo  crane  on  the  wing  with  the  little 
Springfield,  almost  exactly  repeating  my  experience  with 
the  other  crane  which  I  had  shot  three  weeks  before,  ex- 
cept that  on  this  occasion  I  brought  down  the  bird  with 
my  third  bullet,  and  then  wasted  the  last  two  cartridges  in 
the  magazine  at  his  companions.  At  dusk  the  donkeys 
were  driven  to  a  fire  within  the  camp,  and  they  stood  pa- 
tiently round  it  in  a  circle  throughout  the  night,  safe  from 
lions  and  hyenas. 

Next  day's  march  brought  us  to  another  small  tributary 
of  the  Guaso  Nyero,  a  little  stream  twisting  rapidly  through 
the  plain,  between  sheer  banks.  Here  and  there  it  was 
edged  with  palms  and  beds  of  bulrushes.  We  pitched  the 
tents  close  to  half  a  dozen  flat-topped  thorn-trees.  We 
spent  several  days  at  this  camp.  Many  kites  came  around 
the  tents,  but  neither  vultures  nor  ravens.  The  country 
was  a  vast  plain  bounded  on  almost  every  hand  by  chains 
of  far-off  mountains.  In  the  south-west,  just  beyond  the 
equator,  the  snows  of  Kenia  lifted  toward  the  sky.  To  the 
north  the  barren  ranges  were  grim  with  the  grimness  of  the 
desert.  The  flats  were  covered  with  pale,  bleached  grass 
which  waved  all  day  long  in  the  wind;  for  though  there 
were  sometimes  calms,  or  changes  in  the  wind,  on  most  of 
the  days  we  were  out  it  never  ceased  blowing  from  some 
point  in  the  south.  In  places  the  parched  soil  was  crumbling 
and  rotten;  in  other  places  it  was  thickly  strewn  with  vol- 
canic stones;  there  were  but  few  tracts  over  which  a  horse 
could  gallop  at  speed,  although  neither  the  rocks  nor  the 
rotten  soil  seemed  to  hamper  the  movements  of  the  game. 
Here  and  there  were  treeless  stretches.  Elsewhere  there 
were  occasional  palms;    and  trees  thirty  or  forty  feet  high, 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  349 

seemingly  cactus  or  aloes,  which  looked  even  more  like 
candelabra  than  the  euphorbia  which  is  thus  named;  and 
a  scattered  growth  of  thorn-trees  and  bushes.  The  thorn- 
trees  were  of  many  kinds.  One  bore  only  a  few  leathery 
leaves,  the  place  of  foliage  being  taken  by  the  mass  of  poi- 
sonous-looking, fleshy  spines  which,  together  with  the 
ends  of  the  branches,  were  bright  green.  The  camel-thorn 
was  completely  armed  with  little,  sharply  hooked  thorns 
which  tore  whatever  they  touched,  whether  flesh  or  clothes. 
Then  there  were  the  mimosas,  with  long,  straight  thorn 
spikes;  they  are  so  plentiful  in  certain  places  along  the  Guaso 
Nyero  that  almost  all  the  lions  have  festering  sores  in  their 
paws  because  of  the  spikes  that  have  broken  off  in  them. 
In  these  thorn-trees  the  weaver-birds  had  built  multitudes  of 
their  straw  nests,  each  with  its  bottle-shaped  mouth  toward 
the  north,  away  from  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  wind. 

Each  morning  we  were  up  at  dawn,  and  saw  the  heavens 
redden  and  the  sun  flame  over  the  rim  of  the  world.  All 
day  long  we  rode  and  walked  across  the  endless  flats,  save 
that  at  noon,  when  the  sky  was  like  molten  brass,  we  might 
rest  under  the  thin  half  shade  of  some  thorn-tree.  As  the 
shadows  lengthened  and  the  harsh,  pitiless  glare  softened, 
we  might  turn  campward;  or  we  might  hunt  until  the  sun 
went  down,  and  the  mountains  in  the  far-off  west,  and  the 
sky  above  them,  grew  faint  and  dim  with  the  hues  of  fairy- 
land. Then  we  would  ride  back  through  the  soft,  warm 
beauty  of  the  tropic  night,  the  stars  blazing  overhead  and 
the  silver  moonlight  flooding  the  reaches  of  dry  grass;  it 
was  so  bright  that  our  shadows  were  almost  as  black  and 
clear-cut  as  in  the  day.  On  reaching  camp  I  would  take 
a  cup  of  tea  with  crackers  or  gingersnaps,  and  after  a  hot 
bath  and  a  shave  I  was  always  eager  for  dinner. 

Scattered  over  these  flats  were  herds  of  zebra,  oryx,  and 
gazelle.  The  gazelle,  the  most  plentiful  and  much  the 
tamest  of  the  game,  were  the  northern  form  of  the  Grant's 
gazelle,  with  straighter  horns  which  represented  the  oppo- 
site extreme  when  compared  with  the  horns  of  the  Roberts' 


350  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

type  which  we  got  on  the  Sotik.  They  seemed  to  me  some- 
what less  in  size  than  the  big  gazelle  of  the  Kapiti  Plains. 
One  of  the  bucks  I  shot,  an  adult  of  average  size  (I  was 
not  able  to  weigh  my  biggest  one),  weighed  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  pounds;  a  very  big  true  Grant's  buck  which  I  shot 
on  the  Kapiti  Plains  weighed  one  hundred  and  seventy-one 
pounds;  doubtless  there  is  complete  intergradation,  but 
the  Guaso  Nyero  form  seemed  slimmer  and  lighter,  and 
in  some  respects  seemed  to  tend  toward  the  Somaliland 
gazelles.  I  marked  no  difference  in  the  habits,  except  that 
these  northern  gazelle  switched  their  tails  more  jerkily, 
more  like  tommies,  than  was  customary  with  the  true 
Grant's  gazelles.  But  the  difference  may  have  been  in 
my  observation.  At  any  rate,  the  gazelles  in  this  neighbor- 
hood, like  those  elsewhere,  went  in  small  parties,  or  herds 
of  thirty  or  forty  individuals,  on  the  open  plains  or  where 
there  were  a  few  scattered  bushes,  and  behaved  like  those 
in  the  Sotik  or  on  the  Athi  Plains.  A  near  kinsman  of 
the  gazelle,  the  gerenuk,  a  curious  creature  with  a  very 
long  neck,  which  the  Swahilis  call  ''little  giraffe,''  was 
scattered  singly  or  in  small  parties  through  the  brush,  and 
was  as  wild  and  wary  as  the  common  gazelle  was  tame. 
It  seemed  to  prefer  browsing,  while  the  common  gazelle 
grazes. 

The  handsome  oryx,  with  their  long  horns  carried  by 
both  sexes,  and  their  coloring  of  black,  white,  and  dun 
gray,  came  next  to  the  gazelle  in  point  of  numbers.  They 
were  generally  found  in  herds  of  from  half  a  dozen  to  fifty 
individuals,  often  mixed  with  zebra  herds.  There  were  also 
solitary  bulls,  probably  turned  out  of  the  herds  by  more 
vigorous  rivals,  and  often  one  of  these  would  be  found  with 
a  herd  of  zebras,  more  merciful  to  it  than  its  own  kinsfolk. 
All  this  game  of  the  plains  is  highly  gregarious  in  habit, 
and  the  species  associate  freely  with  one  another.  The 
oryx  cows  were  now  generally  accompanied  by  very  young 
calves,  for,  unlike  what  we  found  to  be  the  case  with  the 
hartebeest  on  the  Athi,  the  oryx  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  seem 


THE   (iUASO    X\KK()  .'{^n 

to  have  a  definite  calving  time — September.*  I  shot  only 
bulls  (there  was  no  meat,  either  for  the  porters  or  ourselves, 
except  what  I  got  with  the  rifle),  and  they  were  so  wary  that 
almost  all  those  I  killed  were  shot  at  ranges  between  three 
hundred  and  five  hundred  yards;  and  at  such  ranges  I 
need  hardly  say  that  I  did  a  good  deal  of  missing.  One 
wounded  bull  which,  the  ground  being  favorable,  I  gal- 
loped down,  turned  to  bay  and  threatened  to  charge  the 
horse.  We  weighed  one  bull;  it  tipped  the  scales  at  four 
hundred  pounds.  The  lion  kills  we  found  in  this  neighbor- 
hood were  all  oryx  and  zebra;  and  evidently  the  attack  was 
made  in  such  fashion  that  the  oryx  had  no  more  chance  to 
fight  than  the  zebra. 

The  zebra  were  of  both  species,  the  smaller  or  Burchell's, 
and  the  Grevy's,  which  the  porters  called  kangani.  PLach 
animal  went  in  herds  by  itself,  and  almost  as  frequently 
we  found  them  in  mixed  herds  containing  both  species. 
But  they  never  interbreed,  and  associate  merely  as  each 
does  with  the  oryx.  The  kangani  is  a  fine  beast,  much 
bigger  than  its  kinsman;  it  is  as  large  as  a  polo  pony.  It  is 
less  noisy  than  the  common  zebra,  the  "bonte  quagga"  of 
the  Boers,  and  its  cry  is  totally  different.  Its  gaits  are  a 
free,  slashing  trot  and  gallop.  When  it  stands  facing  one 
the  huge  fringed  ears  make  it  instantly  recognizable.  The 
stripes  are  much  narrower  and  more  numerous  than  those 
on  the  small  zebra,  and  in  consequence  cease  to  be  dis- 
tinguishable at  a  shorter  distance;  the  animal  then  looks 
gray,  like  a  wild  ass.  When  the  two  zebras  are  together 
the  coloring  of  the  smaller  kind  is  more  conspicuous.  In 
scanning  a  herd  with  the  glasses  we  often  failed  to  make 
out  the  species  until  we  could  catch  the  broad  black  and 
white  stripes  on  the  rump  of  the  common  "bonte  quagga." 
There  were  many  young  foals  with  the  kangani;    I  hap- 

*0f  course  this  represents  only  one  man's  experience.  I  wish  there  were  many 
such  observations.  On  the  Athi  in  May  I  found  new-born  wildebeest  and  harte- 
beest  calves,  and  others  several  months  old.  In  June  in  the  Sotik  I  saw  new-born 
eland  calves,  and  topi  calves  several  months  old.  In  September  on  the  Guaso  Nyero 
all  the  oryx  calves  were  new-born.     The  zebra  foals  were  also  very  young. 


352 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


pened  not  to  see  any  with  the  Burchell's.  I  found  the  kan- 
gani  even  more  wary  and  more  difficult  to  shoot  than  the 
oryx.  The  first  one  I  killed  was  shot  at  a  range  of  four 
hundred  yards;  the  next  I  wounded  at  that  distance,  and 
had  to  ride  it  down,  at  the  cost  of  a  hard  gallop  over  very 
bad  country  and  getting  torn  by  the  "wait-a-bit"  thorns. 


A  mixed  herd  of  Grevy's  and  Burchell's  zebras 
From  a  pholngraph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

There  were  a  number  of  rhinos  on  the  plains,  dull  of 
wit  and  senses,  as  usual.  Three  times  we  saw  cows  with 
calves  trotting  at  their  heels.  Once,  while  my  men  were 
skinning  an  oryx,  I  spied  a  rhino  less  than  half  a  mile  off. 
Mounting  my  horse  I  cantered  down,  and  examined  it 
within  a  hundred  yards.  It  was  an  old  bull  with  worn 
horns,  and  never  saw  me.  On  another  occasion,  while  we 
were  skinning  a  big  zebra,  there  were  three  rhinoceros,  all 
in  different  places,  in  sight  at  the  same  time. 

There  were  also  ostriches.    I  saw  a  party  of  cocks,  with 


IHE   GUASO   NYERO  353 

wings  spread  and  necks  curved  backward,  strutting  and 
dancing.  Their  mincing,  springy  run  is  far  faster  than, 
when  the  bird  is  near  by,  it  seems.  The  neck  is  held  back 
in  running,  and  when  at  speed  the  stride  is  twenty-one  feet. 
No  game  is  more  wary  or  more  difficuk  to  approach.  I 
killed  both  a  cock  and  a  hen — which  I  found  the  naturalists 
valued  even  more  than  a  cock.  We  got  them  by  stumbling 
on  the  nest,  which  contained  eleven  huge  eggs,  and  was 
merely  a  bare  spot  in  the  sand,  surrounded  by  grass  two  feet 
high;  the  bird  lay  crouched,  with  the  neck  flat  on  the  ground. 
When  we  accidentally  came  across  the  nest  the  cock  was  on 
it,  and  I  failed  to  get  him  as  he  ran.  The  next  day  we 
returned,  and  dismounted  before  we  reached  the  near 
neighborhood  of  the  nest.  Then  I  advanced,  cautiously, 
my  rifle  at  the  ready.  It  seemed  impossible  that  so  huge  a 
bird  could  lie  hidden  in  such  scanty  cover,  but  not  a  sign 
did  we  see  until,  when  we  were  sixty  yards  off,  the  hen, 
which  this  time  was  on  the  nest,  rose,  and  I  killed  her 
at  sixty  yards.  Even  this  did  not  make  the  cock  desert  the 
nest;  and  on  a  subsequent  day  I  returned,  and  after  missing 
him  badly,  I  killed  him  at  eighty-five  yards;  and  glad  I 
was  to  see  the  huge  black-and-white  bird  tumble  in  the 
dust.  He  weighed  two  hundred  and  sixty-three  pounds 
and  was  in  fine  plumage.  The  hen  weighed  two  hundred 
and  forty  pounds.  Her  stomach  and  gizzard,  in  addition 
to  small,  white  quartz  pebbles,  contained  a  mass  of  vege- 
table substance;  the  bright-green  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  a 
shrub,  a  kind  of  rush  with  jointed  stem  and  tuberous  root, 
bean  pods  from  different  kinds  of  thorn-trees,  and  the 
leaves  and  especially  the  seed  vessels  of  a  bush,  the  seed 
vessels  being  enclosed  in  cases  or  pods  so  thorny  that  they 
pinched  our  fingers,  and  made  us  wonder  at  the  bird's 
palate.  Cock  and  hen  brood  the  eggs  alternately.  We  found 
the  heart  and  liver  of  the  ostrich  excellent  eating;  the  eggs 
were  very  good  also.  As  the  cock  died  it  uttered  a  kind 
of  loud,  long-drawn  grunting  boom  that  was  almost  a  roar. 
Its    beautiful    white    wing    plumes    were    almost    unworn. 


354  AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 

A  full-grown  wild  ostrich  is  too  wary  to  fall  into  the  clutches 
of  a  lion  or  leopard,  save  by  accident,  and  it  will  master 
any  of  the  lesser  carnivora;  but  the  chicks  are  preyed 
on  by  jackals  and  wild-cats,  and  of  course  by  the  larger 
beasts  of  prey  also;  and  the  eggs  are  eagerly  sought  by 
furred  and  feathered  foes  alike.  Seemingly  trustworthy 
settlers  have  assured  me  that  vultures  break  the  tough 
shells  with  stones.  The  cock  and  hen  will  try  to  draw  their 
more  formidable  foes  away  from  the  nest  or  the  chicks  by 
lingering  so  near  as  to  lure  them  into  pursuit;  and  anything 
up  to  the  size  of  a  hyena  they  will  attack  and  drive  away, 
or  even  kill.  The  terrific  downward  stroke  of  an  ostrich's 
leg  is  as  dangerous  as  the  kick  of  a  horse;  the  thump  will 
break  a  rib  or  backbone  of  any  ordinary  animal,  and  in 
addition  to  the  force  of  the  blow  itself  the  big  nails  may 
make  a  ghastly  rip.  Both  cock  and  hen  lead  about  the 
young  brood  and  care  for  it.  The  two  ostriches  I  shot 
were  swarming  with  active  parasitic  flies,  a  little  like  those 
that  were  on  the  lions  I  shot  in  the  Sotik.  Later  the  por- 
ters brought  us  in  several  ostrich  chicks.  They  also  brought 
two  genet  kittens,  which  I  tried  to  raise,  but  failed.  They 
were  much  like  ordinary  kittens,  with  larger  ears,  sharper 
noses,  and  longer  tails,  and  loved  to  perch  on  my  shoulder 
or  sit  on  my  lap  while  I  stroked  them.  They  made  dear 
little  pets,  and  I  was  very  sorry  when  they  died. 

On  the  day  that  I  shot  the  cock  ostrich  I  also  shot  a 
giraffe.  The  country  in  which  we  were  hunting  marks 
the  southern  limit  of  the  ''reticulated"  giraffe,  a  form  or 
species  entirely  distinct  from  the  giraffe  we  had  already 
obtained  in  the  country  south  of  Kenia.  The  southern 
giraffe  is  blotched  with  dark  on  a  light  ground,  whereas 
this  northern  or  north-eastern  form  is  of  a  uniform  dark 
color  on  the  back  and  sides,  with  a  net-work  or  reticulation 
of  white  lines  placed  in  a  large  pattern  on  this  dark  back- 
ground. The  naturalists  were  very  anxious  to  obtain  a 
specimen  of  this  form  from  its  southern  limit  of  distribu- 
tion, to  see  if  there  was  any  intergradation  with  the  south- 


The  old  bull  Athi  girafft 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


The  reticulated  giraffe 
From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Rooseveh 


356  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

ern  form,  of  which  we  had  already  shot  specimens  near  its 
northern,  or  at  least  north-eastern,  limit.  The  distinction 
proved  sharp. 

On  the  day  in  question  we  breakfasted  at  six  in  the 
morning,  and  were  off  immediately  afterward;  and  we  did 
not  eat  anything  again  until  supper  at  quarter  to  ten  in  the 
evening.  In  a  hot  climate  a  hunter  does  not  need  lunch; 
and  though  in  a  cold  climate  a  simple  lunch  is  permissible, 
anything  like  an  elaborate  or  luxurious  lunch  is  utterly  out 
of  place  if  the  man  is  more  than  a  parlor  or  drawing-room 
sportsman.  We  saw  no  sign  of  giraffe  until  late  in  the  after- 
noon. Hour  after  hour  we  plodded  across  the  plain,  now 
walking,  now  riding,  in  the  burning  heat.  The  withered 
grass  was  as  dry  as  a  bone,  for  the  country  had  been  many 
months  without  rain;  yet  the  oryx,  zebra,  and  gazelle  evi- 
dently throve  on  the  harsh  pasturage.  There  were  innu- 
merable game  trails  leading  hither  and  thither,  and,  after 
the  fashion  of  game  trails,  usually  fading  out  after  a  few 
hundred  yards.  But  there  were  certain  trails  which  did 
not  fade  out.  These  were  the  ones  which  led  to  water. 
One  such  we  followed.  It  led  across  stretches  of  grassland, 
through  thin  bush,  thorny  and  almost  leafless,  over  tracts  of 
rotten  soil,  cracked  and  crumbling,  and  over  other  tracts 
where  the  unshod  horses  picked  their  way  gingerly  among 
the  masses  of  sharp-edged  volcanic  stones.  Other  trails 
joined  in,  and  it  grew  more  deeply  marked.  At  last  it  led 
to  a  bend  in  a  little  river,  where  flat  shelves  of  limestone 
bordered  a  kind  of  pool  in  the  current  where  there  were 
beds  of  green  rushes  and  a  fringe  of  trees  and  thorn  thickets. 
This  was  evidently  a  favorite  drinking-place.  Many  trails 
converged  toward  it,  and  for  a  long  distance  round  the 
ground  was  worn  completely  bare  by  the  hoofs  of  the  count- 
less herds  of  thirsty  game  that  had  travelled  thither  from 
time  immemorial.  Sleek,  handsome,  long-horned  oryx,  with 
switching  tails,  were  loitering  in  the  vicinity,  and  at  the 
waterhole  itself  we  surprised  a  band  of  gazelles  not  fifty 
yards  off;    they  fled  panic-struck  in  every  direction.     Men 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  357 

and  horses  drank  their  fill;  and  we  returned  to  the  sunny- 
plains  and  the  endless  reaches  of  withered,  rustling  grass. 

At  last,  an  hour  or  two  before  sunset,  when  the  heat  had 
begun  a  little  to  abate,  we  spied  half  a  dozen  giraffes  scat- 
tered a  mile  and  a  half  ahead  of  us,  feeding  on  the  tops 
of  the  few  widely  separated  thorn-trees.  Cuninghame  and 
I  started  toward  them  on  foot,  but  they  saw  us  when  we 
were  a  mile  away,  and  after  gazing  a  short  while,  turned 
and  went  off  at  their  usual  rocking-horse  canter,  twisting 
and  screwing  their  tails.  We  mounted  and  rode  after 
them.  I  was  on  my  zebra-shaped  brown  horse,  which  was 
hardy  and  with  a  fair  turn  of  speed,  and  which  by  this  time 
I  had  trained  to  be  a  good  hunting  horse.  On  the  right 
were  two  giraffe  which  eventually  turned  out  to  be  a  big 
cow  followed  by  a  nearly  full-grown  young  one;  but  Cun- 
inghame, scanning  them  through  his  glasses,  and  misled  by 
the  dark  coloration,  pronounced  them  a  bull  and  cow; 
and  after  the  big  one  I  went.  By  good  luck  we  were  on 
one  of  the  rare  pieces  of  the  country  which  was  fitted  for 
galloping.  I  rode  at  an  angle  to  the  giraffe's  line  of  flight, 
thus  gaining  considerably;  and  when  it  finally  turned  and 
went  straight  away  I  followed  it  at  a  fast  run,  and  before  it 
was  fully  awake  to  the  danger  I  was  but  a  hundred  yards 
behind.  We  were  now  getting  into  bad  country,  and  jump- 
ing off  I  opened  fire  and  crippled  the  great  beast.  Mount- 
ing, I  overtook  it  again  in  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  killed  it. 

In  half  an  hour  the  skinners  and  porters  came  up — one 
of  the  troubles  of  hunting  as  a  naturalist  is  that  it  necessi- 
tates the  presence  of  a  long  tail  of  men  to  take  off  and  carry 
in  the  big  skins,  in  order  that  they  may  ultimately  appear 
in  museums.  In  an  hour  and  a  half  the  giraffe's  skin,  with 
the  head  and  the  leg  bones,  was  slung  on  two  poles;  eight 
porters  bore  it,  while  the  others  took  for  their  own  use  all 
the  meat  they  could  carry.  They  were  in  high  good-humor, 
for  an  abundant  supply  of  fresh  meat  always  means  a  sea- 
son of  rejoicing,  and  they  started  campward  singing  loudly 
under  their  heavy  burdens.     While  the  giraffe  was  being 


358  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

skinned  we  had  seen  a  rhinoceros  feeding  near  our  Hne  of 
march  campward,  and  had  watched  It  until  the  Hght  grew 
dim.  By  the  time  the  skin  was  ready  night  had  fallen,  and 
we  started  under  the  brilliant  moon.  It  lit  up  the  entire 
landscape;  but  moonlight  Is  not  sunlight,  and  there  was  the 
chance  of  our  stumbling  on  the  rhino  unawares,  and  of  Its 
charging;  so  I  rode  at  the  head  of  the  column  with  full- 
jacketed  bullets  In  my  rifle.  However,  we  never  saw  the 
rhino,  nor  had  we  any  other  adventure;  and  the  ride 
through  the  moonlight,  which  softened  all  the  harshness,  and 
gave  a  touch  of  magic  and  mystery,  to  the  landscape,  was 
so  pleasant  that  I  was  sorry  when  we  caught  the  gleam  of 
the  camp-fires. 

Next  day  we  sent  our  porters  to  bring  In  the  rest  of  the 
giraffe  meat  and  the  ostrich  eggs.  The  giraffe's  heart  was 
good  eating.  There  were  many  ticks  on  the  glrafl^e,  as  on 
all  the  game  hereabouts,  and  they  annoyed  us  a  little  also, 
although  very  far  from  being  the  plague  they  were  on  the 
Athi  Plain.  Among  the  flies  which  at  times  tormented  the 
horses  and  hung  around  the  game,  were  big  gadflies  with 
long  wings  folded  longitudinally  down  the  back,  not  In  the 
ordinary  fly  fashion;  they  were  akin  to  the  tsetse  flies,  one 
species  of  which  is  fatal  to  domestic  animals,  and  another, 
the  sleeping-sickness  fly,  to  man  himself.  They  produce 
death  by  means  of  the  fatal  microbes  introduced  into  the 
blood  by  their  bite;  whereas  another  African  fly,  the  seroot, 
found  more  to  the  north,  In  the  Nile  countries.  Is  a  scourge 
to  man  and  beast  merely  because  of  Its  vicious  bite,  and 
where  It  swarms  may  drive  the  tribes  that  own  herds  entirely 
out  of  certain  districts. 

One  afternoon,  while  leading  my  horse  because  the 
ground  was  a  litter  of  sharp-edged  stones,  I  came  out  on  a 
plain  which  was  crawling  with  zebra.  In  every  direction 
there  were  herds  of  scores  or  of  hundreds.  They  were  all 
of  the  common  or  small  kind,  except  three  Individuals  of 
the  big  kangani,  and  were  tame,  letting  me  walk  by  within 
easy  shot.     Other  game  was  mixed  In  with  them.     Soon, 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  359 

walking  over  a  little  ridge  of  rocks,  we  saw  a  rhino  sixty 
yards  off.  To  walk  forward  would  give  it  our  wind;  I  did 
not  wish  to  kill  it;  and  I  was  beginning  to  feel  about  rhino 
the  way  Alice  did  in  Looking  Glass  country,  when  the  ele- 
phants *'did  bother  so."  Having  spied  us  the  beast  at  once 
cocked  its  ears  and  tail,  and  assumed  its  usual  absurd  re- 
semblance to  a  huge  and  exceedingly  alert  and  interested 
pig.  But  with  a  rhino  tragedy  sometimes  treads  on  the 
heels  of  comedy,  and  I  watched  it  sharply,  my  rifle  cocked, 
while  I  had  all  the  men  shout  in  unison  to  scare  it  away. 
The  noise  puzzled  it  much;  with  tail  erect  and  head  tossing 
and  twisting,  it  made  little  rushes  hither  and  thither,  but 
finally  drew  off.  Next  day,  in  shifting  camp,  Cuninghame 
and  I  were  twice  obliged  to  dismount  and  keep  guard  over 
the  safari  while  it  marched  by  within  a  hundred  yards  of  a 
highly  puzzled  rhino,  which  trotted  to  and  fro  in  the  bush, 
evidently  uncertain  whether  or  not  to  let  its  bewilderment 
turn  into  indignation. 

The  camp  to  which  we  thus  shifted  was  on  the  banks 
of  the  Guaso  Nyero,  on  the  edge  of  an  open  glade  in  a  shady 
grove  of  giant  mimosas.  It  was  a  beautiful  camp,  and  in 
the  soft  tropic  nights  I  sat  outside  my  tent  and  watched 
the  full  moon  rising  through  and  above  the  tree  tops. 
There  was  absolutely  no  dew  at  night,  by  the  way.  The 
Guaso  Nyero  runs  across  and  along  the  equator,  through 
a  desert  country,  eastward  into  the  dismal  Lorian  swamp, 
where  it  disappears,  save  in  very  wet  seasons,  when  it 
continues  to  the  Tana.  At  our  camp  it  was  a  broad,  rapid, 
muddy  stream  infested  with  crocodiles.  Along  its  banks 
grew  groves  of  ivory-nut  palms,  their  fronds  fan-shaped, 
their  tall  trunks  forked  twenty  or  thirty  feet  from  the  ground, 
each  stem  again  forking — something  like  the  antlers  of  a 
black-tail  buck.  In  the  frond  of  a  small  palm  of  this  kind 
we  found  a  pale-colored,  very  long-tailed  tree  mouse,  in  its 
nest,  which  was  a  ball  of  chopped  straw.  Spurfowl  and 
francolin  abounded,  their  grating  cries  being  heard  every- 
where;   I  shot  a  few  as  well  as  one  or  two  sandgrouse; 


360  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

and  with  the  rifle  I  knocked  off  the  heads  of  two  guinea- 
fowls.  The  last  feat  sounds  better  in  the  narration  than 
it  was  in  the  performance;  for  I  wasted  nearly  a  beltful  of 
cartridges  in  achieving  it,  as  the  guineas  were  shy  and  ran 
rapidly  through  the  tall  grass.  I  also  expended  a  large 
number  of  cartridges  before  securing  a  couple  of  gerenuk; 
the  queer,  long-legged,  long-necked  antelope  were  wary, 
and  as  soon  as  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  me  off  they  would 
go  at  a  stealthy  trot  or  canter  through  the  bushes,  with 
neck  out-stretched.  They  had  a  curious  habit  of  rising  on 
their  hind  legs  to  browse  among  the  bushes ;  I  do  not  re- 
member seeing  any  other  antelope  act  in  this  manner.  There 
were  waterbuck  along  the  river  banks,  and  I  shot  a  couple 
of  good  bulls;  they  belonged  to  the  southern  and  eastern 
species,  which  has  a  light-colored  ring  around  the  rump; 
whereas  the  western  form,  which  I  saw  at  Naivasha,  has  the 
whole  rump  light-colored.  They  like  the  neighborhood  of 
lakes  and  rivers.  I  have  seen  parties  of  them  resting  in 
the  open  plains  during  the  day,  under  trees  which  yielded 
little  more  shade  than  telegraph  poles.  The  handsome, 
shaggy-coated  waterbuck  has  not  the  high  withers  which 
mark  the  oryx,  wildebeest,  and  hartebeest,  and  he  carries 
his  head  and  neck  more  like  a  stag  or  a  wapiti  bull. 

One  day  we  went  back  from  the  river  after  giraffe. 
It  must  have  been  a  year  since  any  rain  had  fallen.  The 
surface  of  the  baked  soil  was  bare  and  cracked,  the  sparse 
tussocks  of  grass  were  brittle  straw,  and  the  trees  and 
bushes  were  leafless;  but  instead  of  leaves  they  almost  all 
carried  thorns,  the  worst  being  those  of  the  wait-a-bit,  which 
tore  our  clothes,  hands,  and  faces.  We  found  the  giraffe 
three  or  four  miles  away  from  the  river,  in  an  absolutely 
waterless  region,  densely  covered  with  these  leafless  wait-a- 
bit  thorn-bushes.  Hanging  among  the  bare  bushes,  by  the 
way,  we  roused  two  or  three  of  the  queer,  diurnal,  golden- 
winged,  slate-colored  bats;  they  flew  freely  in  the  glare  of 
the  sunlight,  minding  it  as  little  as  they  did  the  furnace-like 
heat.    We  found  the  really  dense  wait-a-bit  thorn  thickets 


THE   (iUASO   NYERO  3G1 

quite  impenetrable,  whereas  the  giraffe  moved  through 
them  with  utter  unconcern.  But  the  giraffe's  indifTerence 
to  thorns  is  commonplace  compared  to  its  indifference  to 
water.  These  particular  giraffe  were  not  drinking  either 
at  the  river  or  at  the  one  or  two  streams  which  were  run- 
ning into  it;  and  in  certain  places  giraffe  will  subsist  for 
months  without  drinking  at  all.  How  the  waste  and  evap- 
oration of  moisture  from  their  huge  bodies  is  supplied  is 
one  of  the  riddles  of  biology. 

We  could  not  get  a  bull  giraffe,  and  it  was  only  a  bull 
that  I  wanted.  I  was  much  interested,  however,  in  coming 
up  to  a  cow  asleep.  She  stood  with  her  neck  drooping 
slightly  forward,  occasionally  stamping  or  twitching  an 
ear,  like  a  horse  when  asleep  standing.  I  saw  her  legs  first, 
through  the  bushes,  and  finally  walked  directly  up  to  her  in 
the  open,  until  I  stood  facing  her  at  thirty  yards.  When 
she  at  last  suddenly  saw  me,  she  came  nearer  to  the  execu- 
tion of  a  gambol  than  any  other  giraffe  I  have  ever  seen. 

Another  day  we  went  after  buffalo.  We  left  camp  be- 
fore sunrise,  riding  along  parallel  to  the  river  to  find  the 
spoor  of  a  herd  which  had  drunk  and  was  returning  to 
the  haunts,  away  from  the  river,  in  which  they  here  habit- 
ually spent  the  day.  Two  or  three  hours  passed  before  we 
found  what  we  sought;  and  we  at  once  began  to  follow 
the  trail.  It  was  in  open  thorn-bush,  and  the  animals  were 
evidently  feeding.  Before  we  had  followed  the  spoor  half 
an  hour  we  ran  across  a  rhinoceros.  As  the  spoor  led  above 
wind,  and  as  we  did  not  wish  to  leave  it  for  fear  of  losing  it, 
Cuninghame  stayed  where  he  was,  and  I  moved  round  to 
within  fifty  yards  of  the  rhino,  and,  with  my  rifle  ready, 
began  shouting,  trying  to  keep  the  just  mean  as  regards 
noise,  so  as  to  scare  him,  and  yet  not  yell  so  loudly  as  to 
reach  the  buffalo  if  they  happened  to  be  near  by.  At  last 
I  succeeded,  and  he  trotted  sullenly  off,  tacking  and  veer- 
ing, and  not  going  far.  On  we  went,  and  in  another  half- 
hour  came  on  our  quarry.  I  was  the  first  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  line  of  bulky  black  forms,  picked  out  with  white  where 


362  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

the  sun  glinted  on  the  horn  bosses.  It  was  ten  o'clock,  a 
hot,  windless  morning  on  the  equator,  with  the  sun  shin- 
ing from  a  cloudless  sky;  yet  these  buffalo  were  feeding  in 
the  open,  miles  from  water  or  dense  cover.  They  were 
greedily  cropping  the  few  tufts  of  coarse  herbage  that  grew 
among  the  sparse  thorn-bushes,  which  here  were  not  more 
than  two  feet  high.  In  many  places  buffalo  are  purely 
nocturnal  feeders,  and  do  not  come  into  the  hot,  bare  plains 
in  the  scorching  glare  of  daylight;  and  our  experience  with 
this  herd  illustrates  afresh  the  need  of  caution  in  generaliz- 
ing about  the  habits  of  game. 

We  crept  toward  them  on  all-fours,  having  left  the  por- 
ters hidden  from,  sight.  At  last  we  were  within  rather  long 
range — a  buffalo's  eyesight  is  good,  and  cannot  be  trifled 
with  as  if  he  were  a  rhino  or  elephant — and  cautiously 
scrutinized  the  herd  through  our  glasses.  There  were  only 
cows  and  perhaps  one  or  two  young  bulls  with  horns  no 
bigger  than  those  of  cows.  I  would  have  liked  another  good 
bull's  head  for  myself;  but  I  also  wished  another  cow  for 
the  museum.  Before  I  could  shoot,  however,  a  loud  yelling 
was  heard  from  among  the  porters  in  our  rear;  and  away 
went  the  buffalo.  Full  of  wrath,  we  walked  back  to  in- 
quire. We  found  that  one  porter  had  lost  his  knife,  and 
had  started  back  to  look  for  it,  accompanied  by  two  of  his 
fellows,  which  was  absolutely  against  orders.  They  had 
come  across  a  rhino,  probably  the  one  I  had  frightened 
from  our  path,  and  had  endeavored  to  avoid  him;  but  he 
had  charged  them,  whereupon  they  scattered.  He  over- 
took one  and  tossed  him,  goring  him  in  the  thigh;  where- 
upon they  came  back,  the  two  unwounded  ones  supporting 
the  other,  and  all  howling  like  lost  souls.  I  had  some  crystals 
of  permanganate,  an  antiseptic,  and  some  cotton  in  my 
saddle  pocket;  Cuninghame  tore  some  of  the  lining  out  of 
his  sleeve  for  a  bandage;  and  we  fixed  the  man  up  and  left 
him  with  one  companion,  while  we  sent  another  in  to  camp 
to  fetch  out  a  dozen  men  with  a  ground-sheet  and  some 
poles,  to  make  a  litter  in  which  the  wounded  man  could  be 


THE   GUASO   NYERO 


363 


carried.      While    we    were    engaged    in    this    field    surgery 
another  rhino  was  in  sight  half  a  mile  off. 

Then  on  we  went  on  the  trail  of  the  herd.    It  led  straight 
across  the  open,  under  the  blazing  sun;    and  the  heat  was 


Dressing  the  porter  who  was  tossed  by  the  rhino 
From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


now  terrific.  At  last,  almost  exactly  at  noon,  Cuninghame, 
who  was  leading,  stopped  short.  He  had  seen  the  buffalo, 
which  had  halted,  made  a  half-bend  backward  on  their 
tracks,  and  stood  for  their  noonday  rest  among  some  scat- 
tered, stunted  thorn-trees,  leafless  and  yielding  practically 
no  shade  whatever.  A  cautious  stalk  brought  me  to  within 
a  hundred  and  fifty  yards.     I  merely  wounded  the  one  I 


364  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

first  shot  at,  but  killed  another  as  the  herd  started  to  run. 
Leaving  the  skinners  to  take  care  of  the  dead  animal,  a  fine 
cow,  Cuninghame  and  I  started  after  the  herd,  to  see  if 
the  wounded  one  had  fallen  out.  After  a  mile  the  trail  led 
into  some  scant  cover.  Here  the  first  thing  we  did  was  to 
run  into  another  rhinoceros.  It  was  about  seventy  yards 
away,  behind  a  thorn-tree,  and  began  to  move  jerkily  and 
abruptly  to  and  fro,  gazing  toward  us.  "Oh,  you  malev- 
olent old  idiot!"  I  muttered,  facing  it  with  rifle  cocked; 
then,  as  it  did  not  charge,  I  added  to  Cuninghame,  "Well, 
I  guess  it  will  let  us  by,  all  right."  And  let  us  by  it  did. 
We  were  anxious  not  to  shoot  it,  both  because  in  a  country 
with  no  settlers  a  rhino  rarely  does  harm,  and  I  object  to 
anything  like  needless  butchery,  and  furthermore  because  we 
desired  to  avoid  alarming  the  buffalo.  Half  a  mile  farther 
on  we  came  on  the  latter,  apparently  past  their  fright.  We 
looked  them  carefully  over  with  our  glasses;  the  wounded 
one  was  evidently  not  much  hurt,  and  therefore  I  did  not 
wish  to  kill  her,  for  I  did  not  need  another  cow;  and  there 
was  no  adult  bull.  So  we  did  not  molest  them;  and  after 
a  while  they  got  our  wind  and  went  off  at  a  lumbering  gal- 
lop. Returning  to  the  dead  cow,  we  found  the  skin  ready 
and  marched  back  to  camp,  reaching  it  just  as  the  moon 
rose,  at  seven;  we  had  been  away  thirteen  hours,  with 
nothing  to  eat  and  only  the  tepid  water  in  our  canteens  to 
drink. 

We  were  in  the  country  of  the  Samburu,  and  several  of 
their  old  men  and  warriors  visited  us  at  this  camp.  They 
are  cattle-owning  nomads  like  the  Masai;  but  in  addition 
to  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats  they  own  herds  of  camels,  which 
they  milk  but  do  not  use  as  beasts  of  burden.  In  features 
they  are  more  like  Somalis  than  negroes. 

Near  this  camp  was  the  remains  of  the  boma  or  home 
camp  of  Arthur  Neuman,  once  the  most  famous  elephant 
hunter  between  the  Tana  and  Lake  Rudolf.  Neuman, 
whose  native  name  was  Nyama  Yango,  was  a  strange 
moody  man  who  died  by  his  own  hand.     He  was  a  mighty 


THE   GlIASO   NYERO  365 

hunter,  of  bold  and  adventure-loving  temper.  With  whites 
he  was  unsocial,  living  in  this  far-ofif  region  exactly  like  a 
native,  and  all  alone  among  the  natives;  living  in  some 
respects  too  much  like  a  native.  But,  from  the  native  stand- 
point, and  without  making  any  effort  to  turn  the  natives 
into  anything  except  what  they  were,  he  did  them  good, 
and  left  a  deep  impression  on  their  minds.  They  talked  to 
us  often  about  him,  in  many  different  places;  they  would 
not  believe  that  he  was  dead;  and  when  assured  it  was 
so  they  showed  real  grief.  At  Meru  boma,  when  we  saw 
the  Meru  tribesmen  dance,  one  of  the  songs  they  sung  was: 
"Since  Nyama  Yango  came,  our  sheep  graze  untouched 
by  the  Samburu,"  and,  rather  curiously,  the  Samburu  sing 
a  similar  song  reciting  how  he  saved  them  from  the  fear 
of  having  their  herds  raided  by  the  nomads  farther  north. 

After  leaving  this  camp  we  journeyed  up  the  Guaso 
Nyero  for  several  days.  The  current  was  rapid  and  muddy, 
and  there  were  beds  of  reeds  and  of  the  tall,  graceful  papy- 
rus. The  country  round  about  was  a  mass  of  stony,  broken 
hills,  and  the  river  wound  down  among  these,  occasionally 
cutting  its  way  through  deep  gorges,  and  its  course  being 
continually  broken  by  rapids.  Whenever  on  our  hunts  we 
had  to  cross  it,  we  shouted  and  splashed  and  even  fired 
shots,  to  scare  the  crocodiles.  I  shot  one  on  a  sand  bar  in 
the  river.  The  man  the  rhino  had  wounded  was  carried 
along  on  a  litter  with  the  safari. 

Sometimes  I  left  camp  with  my  sais  and  gun-bearer 
before  dawn,  starting  in  the  light  of  the  waning  moon,  and 
riding  four  or  five  hours  before  halting  to  wait  for  the  safari; 
on  the  way  I  had  usually  shot  something  for  the  table — a 
waterbuck,  impalla,  or  gazelle.  On  other  occasions  Cun- 
inghame  and  I  would  spend  the  day  hunting  in  the  waterless 
country  back  of  the  river,  where  the  heat  at  mid-day  was 
terrific.  We  might  not  reach  camp  until  after  nightfall. 
Once  as  we  came  to  it  in  the  dark  it  seemed  as  if  ghostly 
arms  stretched  above  it;  for  on  this  evening  the  tents  had 
been  pitched  under  trees  up  which  huge  rubber  vines  had 


366  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

climbed,  and  their  massive  dead-white  trunks  and  branches 
gUmmered  pale  and  ghostly  in  the  darkness. 

Twice  my  gun-bearers  tried  to  show  me  a  cheetah;  but 
my  eyes  were  too  slow  to  catch  the  animal  before  it  bounded 
off  in  safety  among  the  bushes.  Another  time  after  an  ex- 
cellent bit  of  tracking,  the  gun-bearers  brought  me  up  to  a 
buffalo  bull,  standing  for  his  noonday  rest  in  the  leafless 
thorns  a  mile  from  the  river.  I  thought  I  held  the  heavy 
Holland  straight  for  his  shoulder,  but  I  must  have  fired 
high;  for  though  he  fell  to  the  shot  he  recovered  at  once. 
We  followed  the  blood  spoor  for  an  hour,  the  last  part  of 
the  time  when  the  trail  wandered  among  and  through  the 
heavy  thickets  under  the  trees  on  the  river  banks;  here  I 
walked  beside  the  tracker  with  my  rifle  at  full  cock,  for  we 
could  not  tell  what  instant  we  might  be  charged.  But  his 
trail  finally  crossed  the  river,  and  as  he  was  going  stronger 
and  stronger  we  had  to  abandon  the  chase.  In  the  water- 
less country,  away  from  the  river,  we  found  little  except 
herds  of  zebra,  of  both  kinds,  occasional  oryx  and  eland,  and 
a  few  giraffe.  A  stallion  of  the  big  kangani  zebra  which  I 
shot  stood  fourteen  hands  high  at  the  withers  and  weighed 
about  eight  hundred  and  thirty  pounds,*  according  to  the 
Seton  beam.  I  shot  another  kangani  just  at  nightfall,  a 
mile  or  so  from  camp,  as  it  drank  in  a  wild,  tree-clad  gorge 
of  the  river.  I  was  alone,  strolling  quietly  through  the 
dusk,  along  the  margin  of  the  high  banks  by  the  stream, 
and  saw  a  mixed  herd  .of  zebras  coming  down  to  a  well- 
worn  drinking-place,  evidently  much  used  by  game,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  They  were  alert  and  nervous, 
evidently  on  the  lookout  for  both  lions  and  crocodiles.  I 
singled  out  the  largest,  the  leader  of  the  troop,  and  shot  it 

*  The  aggregate  of  the  weights  of  the  different  pieces  was  778  pounds;  the  loss  of 
blood  and  the  drying  of  the  pieces  of  flesh  in  the  intense  heat  of  the  sun  we  thought 
certainly  accounted  for  50  pounds  more.  The  stallion  was  not  fat.  At  any  rate 
it  weighed  between  800  and  850  pounds.  Its  testicles,  though  fully  developed,  had 
not  come  down  out  of  the  belly  skin;  one  of  those  shot  by  Kermit  showed  the  same 
peculiarity;  Cuninghame  says  it  is  a  common  occurrence  with  this  species.  More- 
over the  stallions  did  not  have  their  canine  teeth  developed. 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  367 

across  the  stream;  I  have  rarely  taken  a  shot  among  more 
picturesque  surroundings. 

At  our  final  camp  on  the  river,  before  leaving  it  on  our 
week's  steady  trek  southward  to  Neri,  we  found  a  spot 
in  which  game  abounded.  It  was  about  ten  miles  back 
from  the  river,  a  stretch  of  plain  sparsely  covered  with 
thorn-trees,  broken  by  koppies,  and  bounded  by  chains  of 
low,  jagged  mountains,  with  an  occasional  bold,  isolated 
peak.  The  crags  and  cliff  walls  were  fantastically  carved  and 
channelled  by  the  weathering  of  ages  in  that  dry  climate. 
It  was  a  harsh,  unlovely  spot  in  the  glare  of  the  hot  day- 
light; but  at  sunset  it  was  very  lovely,  with  a  wild  and 
stern  beauty. 

Here  the  game  abounded,  and  was  not  wary.  Before 
starting  out  on  our  week's  steady  marching  I  wished  to 
give  the  safari  a  good  feed;  and  one  day  I  shot  them  five 
zebra  and  an  oryx  bull,  together  with  a  couple  of  gazelle 
for  ourselves  and  our  immediate  attendants — enough  of 
the  game  being  hallalled  to  provide  for  the  Mohammedans 
in  the  safari.  I  also  shot  an  old  bull  giraffe  of  the  northern 
form,  after  an  uneventful  stalk  which  culminated  in  a  shot 
with  the  Winchester  at  a  hundred  and  seventy  yards.  In 
most  places  this  particular  stretch  of  country  was  not 
suitable  for  galloping,  the  ground  being  rotten,  filled  with 
holes,  and  covered  with  tall,  coarse  grass.  One  evening 
we  saw  two  lions  half  a  mile  away;  I  tried  to  ride  them, 
but  my  horse  fell  twice  in  the  first  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
and  I  could  not  even  keep  them  in  sight.  Another  day 
we  got  a  glimpse  of  two  lions,  quarter  of  a  mile  off,  glid- 
ing avv^ay  among  the  thorns.  They  went  straight  to  the 
river  and  swam  across  it.  More  surprising  was  the  fact 
that  a  monkey,  which  lost  its  head  when  we  surprised  it  in 
a  tree  by  the  river,  actually  sprang  plump  into  the  stream, 
and  swam,  easily  and  strongly,  across  it. 

One  day  we  had  a  most  interesting  experience  with  a 
cow  giraffe.  We  saw  her  a  long  way  off  and  stalked  to 
within  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  we  could  make  out 


3G8  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

her  sex.  She  was  standing  under  some  thorn-trees,  occa- 
sionally shifting  her  position  for  a  few  yards,  and  then 
again  standing  motionless  with  her  head  thrust  in  among 
the  branches.  She  was  indulging  in  a  series  of  noon  naps. 
At  last,  when  she  stood  and  went  to  sleep  again,  I  walked 
up  to  her,  Cuninghame  and  our  two  gun-bearers,  Bakhari 
and  Kongoni,  following  a  hundred  yards  behind.  When 
I  was  within  forty  yards,  in  plain  sight,  away  from  cover, 
she  opened  her  eyes  and  looked  drowsily  at  me;  but  I  stood 
motionless  and  she  dozed  off  again.  This  time  I  walked  up 
to  within  ten  feet  of  her.  Nearer  I  did  not  care  to  venture, 
as  giraffe  strike  and  kick  very  hard  with  their  hooves, 
and,  moreover,  occasionally  strike  with  the  head,  the  blow 
seemingly  not  being  delivered  with  the  knobby,  skin- 
covered  horns,  but  with  the  front  teeth  of  the  lower 
jaw.  She  waked,  looked  at  me,  and  then,  rearing  slightly, 
struck  at  me  with  her  left  foreleg,  the  blow  falling  short.  I 
laughed  and  leaped  back,  and  the  other  men  ran  up  shout- 
ing. But  the  giraffe  would  not  run  away.  She  stood  within 
twenty  feet  of  us,  looking  at  us  peevishly,  and  occasionally 
pouting  her  lips  at  us,  as  if  she  were  making  a  face.  We 
kept  close  to  the  tree,  so  as  to  dodge  round  it,  under  the 
branches,  if  she  came  at  us;  for  we  would  have  been  most 
reluctant  to  shoot  her.  I  threw  a  stick  at  her,  hitting  her 
in  the  side,  but  she  paid  no  attention;  and  when  Bakhari 
came  behind  her  with  a  stick  she  turned  sharply  on  him 
and  he  made  a  prompt  retreat.  We  were  laughing  and 
talking  all  the  time.  Then  we  pelted  her  with  sticks 
and  clods  of  earth,  and,  after  having  thus  stood  within 
twenty  feet  of  us  for  three  or  four  minutes,  she  cantered 
slowly  off  for  fifty  yards,  and  then  walked  away  with  lei- 
surely unconcern.  She  was  apparently  in  the  best  of  health 
and  in  perfect  condition.  She  did  not  get  our  wind;  but 
her  utte-r  indifference  to  the  close  presence  of  four  men  is 
inexplicable.* 

*  After  writing  the  above  account  I  read  it  over  to  Mr.  Cuninghame  so  as  to  be 
sure  that  it  was  accurate  in  all  its  details.    All  the  game  was  tame  in  this  locality, 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  369 

On  each  of  the  two  days  we  hunted  this  Httle  district  we 
left  camp  at  sunrise,  and  did  not  return  until  eight  or  nine 
in  the  evening,  fairly  well  tired,  and  not  a  little  torn  by  the 
thorns  into  which  we  blundered  during  the  final  two  hours' 
walk  in  the  darkness.  It  was  hot,  and  we  neither  had  nor 
wished  for  food,  and  the  tepid  water  in  the  canteens  lasted 
us  through.  The  day  I  shot  the  giraffe  the  porters  carrying 
the  skin  fell  behind,  and  never  got  in  until  next  morning. 
Coming  back  in  the  late  twilight  a  party  of  the  big  zebra, 
their  forms  shadowy  and  dim,  trotted  up  to  us,  evidently 
attracted  by  the  horses,  and  accompanied  us  for  some 
rods;  and  a  hedgehog,  directly  in  our  path,  kept  bleating 
loudly,  like  an  antelope  kid. 

The  day  we  spent  in  taking  care  of  the  giraffe  skin  we, 
of  course,  made  no  hunt.  However,  in  the  afternoon  I 
sauntered  upstream  a  couple  of  miles  to  look  for  croco- 
diles. I  saw  none,  but  I  was  much  interested  in  some 
zebra  and  waterbuck.  The  zebra  were  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river,  standing  among  some  thorns,  and  at  three, 
mid-afternoon,  they  came  down  to  drink;  up  to  this  time 
I  had  generally  found  zebra  drinking  in  the  evening  or  at 
night.  Then  I  saw  some  waterbuck,  also  on  the  opposite 
bank,  working  their  way  toward  the  river,  and  seemg  a 
well-marked  drinking-place  ahead  I  hastened  toward  it, 
and  sat  down  in  the  middle  of  the  broad  game  trail  leading 
down  to  the  water  on  my  side.  I  sat  perfectly  still,  and 
my  clothes  were  just  the  color  of  the  ground,  and  the  water- 
buck  never  noticed  me,  though  I  was  in  plain  view  when 
they  drank,  just  opposite  me,  and  only  about  fifty  yards 
off.  There  were  four  cows  and  a  bull.  It  was  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  The  cows  came  first,  one  by  one,  and 
were  very  alert  and  suspicious.  Each  continually  stopped 
and  stood  motionless,  or  looked  in  every  direction,  and  gave 
little  false  starts  of  alarm.     When  they  reached  the  green 

even  the  giraffe,  but  no  other  giraffe  allowed  us  to  get  within  two  hundred  yards, 
and  most  of  them  ran  long  before  that  distance  was  reached,  even  when  we  were 
stalking  carefully. 

24 


370  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

grass  by  the  water's  edge  each  cropped  a  few  mouthfuls, 
between  times  nervously  raising  its  head  and  looking  in 
every  direction,  nostrils  and  ears  twitching.  They  were 
not  looking  for  crocodiles,  but  for  land  foes^  lions  or  leop- 
ards. Each  in  turn  drank,  skipping  up  to  the  top  of  the 
bank  after  a  few  mouthfuls,  and  then  returning  to  the  water. 
The  bull  followed  with  rather  less  caution,  and  before  he 
had  finished  drinking  the  cows  scurried  hurriedly  back  to 
the  thorn-trees  and  the  open  country.  We  had  plenty  of 
meat  in  camp,  and  I  had  completed  my  series  of  this  species 
of  waterbuck  for  the  museum;  and  I  was  glad  there  was 
no  need  to  molest  them. 

The  porters  were  enjoying  the  rest  and  the  abundance 
of  meat.  They  were  lying  about  camp  or  were  scattered  up 
and  down  stream  fishing.  When,  walking  back,  I  came 
to  the  outskirts  of  camp,  I  was  attracted  by  the  buzzing 
and  twanging  of  the  harp;  there  was  the  harper  and  two 
friends,  all  three  singing  to  his  accompaniment.  I  called 
*'Yambo"  (greeting),  and  they  grinned  and  stood  up, 
shouting  "Yambo"  in  return.  In  camp  a  dozen  men  were 
still  at  work  at  the  giraffe  skin,  and  they  were  all  singing 
loudly,  under  the  lead  of  my  gun-bearer,  Gouvimali,  who 
always  acted  as  shanty  man,  or  improvisatore,  on  such 
occasions. 

For  a  week  we  now  trekked  steadily  south  across  the 
equator,  heel  and  toe  marching,  to  Neri.  Our  first  day's 
journey  took  us  to  a  gorge  riven  in  the  dry  mountain.  Half- 
way up  it,  in  a  side  pocket,  was  a  deep  pool,  at  the  foot  of 
a  sloping  sheet  of  rock,  down  which  a  broad,  shallow  dent 
showed  where  the  torrents  swept  during  the  rains.  In  the 
trees  around  the  pool  black  drongo  shrikes  called  in  bell- 
like tones,  and  pied  hornbills  flirted  their  long  tails  as  they 
bleated  and  croaked.  The  water  was  foul;  but  in  a  dry 
country  one  grows  gratefully  to  accept  as  water  anything 
that  is  wet.  Klipspringers  and  baboons  were  in  the  sheer 
hills  around;  and  among  the  rocks  were  hyraxes  (looking 
like  our   Rocky  Mountain  conies   or   Little  Chief  hares), 


Kusly  rock- 


African 
hedgehoy 


372  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

queer  diurnal  rats,  and  bright  blue-green  lizards  with  or- 
ange heads.  Rhinos  drank  at  this  pool;  we  frequently  saw 
them  on  our  journey,  but  always  managed  to  avoid  wound- 
ing their  susceptibilities,  and  so  escaped  an  encounter. 
Each  day  we  endeavored  to  camp  a  couple  of  hours  before 
sundown  so  as  to  give  the  men  plenty  of  chance  to  get  fire- 
wood, pitch  the  tents,  and  put  everything  in  order.  Some- 
times we  would  make  an  early  start;  in  which  case  we 
would  breakfast  in  the  open,  while  in  the  east  the  crescent 
of  the  dying  moon  hung  over  the  glow  that  heralded  the 
sunrise. 

As  we  reached  the  high,  rolling  downs  the  weather  grew 
cooler,  and  many  flowers  appeared;  those  of  the  aloes  were 
bright  red,  standing  on  high  stalks  above  the  clump  of 
fleshy,  spined  leaves,  which  were  handsomely  mottled,  like 
a  snake's  back.  As  I  rode  at  the  head  of  the  safari  I  usually, 
in  the  course  of  the  day,  shot  a  buck  of  some  kind  for  the 
table.  I  had  not  time  to  stalk,  but  simply  took  the  shots 
as  they  came,  generally  at  long  range.  One  day  I  shot 
an  eland,  an  old  blue  bull.  We  needed  the  skin  for  the 
museum,  and  as  there  was  water  near  by  we  camped  where 
we  were;  I  had  already  shot  a  waterbuck  that  morning, 
and  this  and  the  eland  together  gave  the  entire  safari  a  feast 
of  meat. 

On  another  occasion  an  eland  herd  afforded  me  fun, 
although  no  profit.  I  was  mounted  on  Brownie,  the  zebra- 
shaped  pony.  Brownie  would  still  occasionally  run  off 
when  I  dismounted  to  shoot  (a  habit  that  had  cost  me  an 
eland  bull);  but  he  loved  to  gallop  after  game.  We  came 
on  a  herd  of  eland  in  an  open  plain;  they  were  directly 
in  our  path.  We  were  in  the  country  where  the  ordinary 
or  Livingstone's  eland  grades  into  the  Patterson's;  and  I 
knew  that  the  naturalists  wished  an  additional  bull's  head 
for  the  museum.  So  I  galloped  toward  the  herd;  and  for 
the  next  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  I  felt  as  if  I  had  renewed 
my  youth  and  was  in  the  cow  camps  of  the  West,  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago.     Eland  are  no  faster  than  range  cattle. 


THE   GUASO   NYERO  S7S 

Twice  I  rounded  up  the  herd — just  as  once  in  the  Yellow- 
stone Park  I  rounded  up  a  herd  of  wapiti  for  John  Bur- 
roughs to  look  at — and  three  times  I  cut  out  of  the  herd  a 
big  animal,  which,  however,  in  each  case,  proved  to  be  a 
cow.  There  were  no  big  bulls,  only  cows  and  young  stock; 
but  I  enjoyed  the  gallop. 

From  Neri  we  marched  through  mist  and  rain  across 
the  cold  Aberdare  table-lands,  and  in  the  forenoon  of 
October  20  we  saw  from  the  top  of  the  second  Aberdare 
escarpment  the  blue  waters  of  beautiful  Lake  Naivasha. 
On  the  next  day  we  reached  Nairobi. 


CHAPTER   XII 
TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU 

At  Nairobi  Kermit  joined  me,  having  enjoyed  a  nota- 
bly successful  hunt  during  the  month  since  we  had  parted, 
killing  both  Neuman's  hartebeest  and  koodoo.  The  great 
koodoo,  with  its  spiral  horns  and  striped  coat,  is  the  state- 
liest and  handsomest  antelope  in  the  world.  It  is  a  shy 
creature,  fond  of  bush  and  of  rocky  hills,  and  is  hard  to  get. 

After  leaving  me  at  Meru  Kermit  and  Tarlton  had 
travelled  hard  to  Rumeruti.  They  had  intended  to  go 
to  Lake  Hannington,  but  finding  that  this  was  in  the 
reserve  they  went  three  days  toward  the  north-west,  stop- 
ping a  score  of  miles  east  of  Barengo.  The  country,  which 
showed  many  traces  of  volcanic  action,  was  rough,  rocky, 
and  dry;  the  hunting  was  exhausting,  and  Kermit  was 
out  from  morning  to  night.  Tarlton  had  been  very  sick 
on  the  Guaso  Nyero,  and  although  he  was  better  he  was 
in  no  shape  to  accompany  Kermit,  who  therefore  hunted 
only  with  his  gun  boys,  taking  them  out  alternately  so  as 
to  spare  them  as  much  as  possible.  It  took  three  days' 
steady  work  before  he  got  his  first  koodoo.  On  the  third 
day  he  hunted  fruitlessly  all  the  morning,  came  back  to 
camp,  picked  up  a  fresh  gun-bearer,  Juma  Yohari,  and 
started  out  again.  At  four  in  the  afternoon  he  came  to 
the  brink  of  a  great  hollow  a  mile  across,  perhaps  an  ex- 
tinct crater,  and  looking  from  the  rimrock,  spied  a  koodoo 
bull  in  the  bottom.  The  steep  sides  of  the  hollow  were 
covered  with  a  tangled  growth  of  thorn  scrub  and  cactus, 
traversed  by  rhinoceros  paths.  The  bottom  was  more 
open,  strewn  with  bushy  mounds  or  hillocks,  and  on  one  of 
these  stood  a  noble  koodoo  bull.  He  stood  with  his  mas- 
sive spiral  horns  thrown  back,  and  they  shifted  slowly  as 

374 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  375 

he  turned  his  head  from  side  to  side.  Kermit  stole  down 
one  of  the  rhino  paths  save  for  which  the  scrub  would 
have  been  practically  impenetrable;  it  was  alive  with 
rhinos;  Kermit  heard  several,  and  Juma  who  followed 
seme  distance  behind  saw  three.  The  stalk  took  time; 
and  the  sun  was  on  the  horizon  and  the  light  fading  when, 
at  over  two  hundred  yards,  Kermit  took  his  shot.  The 
first  bullet  missed,  but  as  for  a  moment  the  bull  paused 
and  wheeled  Kermit  fired  again  and  the  second  bullet  went 
home.  The  wounded  beast  ran,  Kermit,  with  Juma,  hard 
on  the  trail;  and  he  overtook  and  killed  it  just  as  darkness 
fell.  Then  back  to  camp  they  stumbled  and  plunged 
through  the  darkness,  Kermit  tearing  the  sole  completely 
off  one  shoe.  They  reached  camp  at  ten  and  Juma,  who 
had  only  been  working  half  the  day,  took  out  some  por- 
ters to  the  dead  bull,  which  they  skinned,  and  then  slept 
by  until  morning.  Later,  on  his  birthday,  he  killed  a 
cow,  which  completed  the  group;  the  two  koodoo  cost 
him  ten  days'  steady  labor.  The  koodoo  were  always  found 
on  steep,  rocky  hills;  their  stomachs  contained  only  grass, 
for  both  beasts  when  shot  were  grazing  (I  do  not  know 
whether  or  not  they  also  browse).  The  mid-day  hours, 
when  the  heat  was  most  intense,  they  usually  spent  resting; 
but  once  Kermit  came  on  two  which  were  drinking  in  a 
stream  exactly  at  noon. 

From  the  koodoo  camp  the  two  hunters  went  to  Lake 
Hannington,  a  lovely  lake,  with  the  mountains  rising  sheer 
from  three  of  its  sides.  The  water  was  saline,  abounding 
with  crocodiles  and  hippos;  and  there  were  myriads  of  fla- 
mingoes. They  were  to  be  seen  swimming  by  thousands 
on  the  lake,  and  wading  and  standing  in  the  shallows;  and 
when  they  rose  they  looked  like  an  enormous  pink  cloud;  it 
was  a  glorious  sight.  They  were  tame;  and  Kermit  had  no 
diflliculty  in  killing  the  specimens  needed  for  the  museum. 
Here  Kermit  also  killed  an  impalla  ram  which  had  met  with 
an  extraordinary  misadventure.  It  had  been  fighting  with 
another  ram,  which  had  stabbed  it  in  the  chest  with  one  horn. 


376  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

The  violent  strain  and  shock,  as  the  two  vigorous  beasts 
bounded  together,  broke  off  the  horn,  leaving  the  broken 
part,  ten  inches  long,  imbedded  in  the  other  buck's  chest; 
about  three  inches  of  the  point  being  fixed  firmly  in  the 
body  of  the  buck,  while  the  rest  stuck  out  like  a  picket  pin. 
Yet  the  buck  seemed  well  and  strong. 

Two  days  after  leaving  Lake  Hannington  they  camped 
near  the  ostrich-farm  of  Mr.  London,  an  American  from 
Baltimore.  He  had  been  waging  war  on  the  lions  and 
leopards,  because  they  attacked  his  ostriches.  He  had 
killed  at  least  a  score  of  each,  some  with  the  rifle,  some 
with  poison  or  steel  traps.  The  day  following  their  arrival 
London  went  out  hunting  with  Kermit  and  Tarlton.  They 
saw  nothing  until  evening,  when  Kermit's  gun-bearer, 
Kassitura,  spied  a  leopard  coming  from  the  carcass  of  a 
zebra  which  London  had  shot  to  use  as  bait  for  his  traps. 
The  leopard  saw  them  a  long  way  off  and  ran;  Kermit 
ran  after  it  and  wounded  it  badly,  twice;  then  Tarlton  got 
a  shot  and  hit  it;  and  then  London  came  across  the 
dying  beast  at  close  quarters  and  killed  it  just  as  it  was 
gathering  itself  to  spring  at  him. 

Thence  they  went  to  Nakuru,  where  Kermit  killed  two 
Neuman's  hartebeest.  They  were  scarce  and  wild,  and 
Kermit  obtained  his  two  animals  by  long  shots  after  fol- 
lowing them  for  hours;  following  them  until,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  they  got  used  to  him,  became  a  little  less  quick 
to  leave,  and  gave  him  his  chance. 

While  on  this  trip  Kermit  passed  his  twentieth  birthday. 
While  still  nineteen  he  had  killed  all  the  kinds  of  African 
dangerous  game — lion,  leopard,  elephant,  buffalo,  and  rhino. 

Heller  also  rejoined  us,  entirely  recovered.  He  had 
visited  Mearns  and  Loring  at  their  camp  high  up  on  Mount 
Kenia,  where  they  had  made  a  thoroughly  biological  sur- 
vey of  the  mountain.  He  had  gone  to  the  line  of  perpetual 
snow,  where  the  rock  peak  rises  abruptly  from  the  swelling 
downs,  and  had  camped  near  a  little  glacial  lake  whose  waters 
froze  every  night.    The  zones  of  plant  and  animal  life  were 


Juma  Yohari  with  the  impalla  killed  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Lake  Hannington 

The  broken  horn  of  another  ram  imbedded  in  the  buck's  neck 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


378  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

well  marked;  but  there  are  some  curious  differences  between 
the  zones  on  these  equatorial  African  snow  mountains  and 
those  on  similar  mountains  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
especially  America.  In  the  high  mountains  of  North  Amer- 
ica the  mammals  are  apt  to  be,  at  least  in  part,  of  totally 
different  kinds  from  those  found  in  the  adjacent  warm 
or  hot  plains,  because  they  represent  a  fauna  which  was 
once  spread  over  the  land,  but  which  has  retreated  north- 
ward, leaving  faunal  islands  on  the  summits  of  the  taller 
mountains.  In  this  part  of  Africa,  however^  there  has  been 
no  faunal  retreat  of  this  type,  no  survivals  on  the  peaks  of 
an  ancient  fauna  which  in  the  plains  and  valleys  has  been 
replaced  by  another  fauna;  here  the  mammals  of  the  high 
mountains  and  table-lands  are  merely  modified  forms  of 
the  mammals  of  the  adjacent  lowlands,  which  have  grad- 
ually crept  up  the  slopes,  changing  in  the  process.  High 
on  Mount  Kenia,  for  instance,  are  hyraxes,  living  among 
the  snow-fields,  much  bigger  than  their  brethren  of  the 
forests  and  rocky  hills  below;  and  light-colored  mole  rats, 
also  much  bigger  than  those  of  the  lower  country.  More- 
over, the  lack  of  seasonal  change  is  probably  accountable 
for  differences  in  the  way  that  the  tree  zones  are  delimited. 
The  mountain  conifers  of  America  are  huge  trees  on  the 
middle  slopes,  but  higher  up  gradually  dwindle  into  a  thick, 
low  scrub,  composed  of  sprawling,  dwarfed  individuals  of 
the  same  species.  On  Mount  Kenia  the  tree  zone  ceases 
much  more  abruptly  and  with  much  less  individual  change 
among  the  different  kinds  of  trees.  Above  this  zone  are  the 
wet,  cold  downs  and  moors,  with  a  very  peculiar  vegeta- 
tion, plants  which  we  know  only  as  small  flowering  things 
having  become  trees.  The  giant  groundsell,  for  instance, 
reaches  a  height  of  twenty  feet,  with  very  thick  trunk  and 
limbs  which,  though  hollow,  make  good  firewood;  and  this 
is  only  one  example  of  the  kind. 

At  Nairobi  we  learned,  as  usual,  of  incident  after  inci- 
dent, which  had  happened  among  our  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances, of  exactly  the  type  which  would  occur  were 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  379 

it  possible  In  North  America  or  Europe  suddenly  to  mix 
among  existing  conditions  the  men  and  animals  that  died 
out  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  ago.  In  a  previ- 
ous chapter  I  mentioned  on  one  occasion  meeting  at  dinner 
three  men,  all  of  whom  had  been  mauled  by  lions;  one  be- 
ing our  host,  Mr.  F.  A.  Ward,  who  had  served  as  a  captain 
in  the  South  African  War,  and  was  now  one  of  the  heads 
of  the  Boma  Trading  Company.  Among  our  fellow-guests 
at  this  dinner  was  Captain  Douglas  Pennant  of  the  British 
Army.  When  we  went  north  to  Kenia  he  went  south  to 
the  Sotlk.  There  he  made  a  fine  bag  of  lions;  but  having 
wounded  a  leopard  and  followed  It  Into  cover  it  suddenly 
sprang  on  him,  apparently  from  a  tree.  His  life  was  saved 
by  his  Somali  gun-bearer  who  blew  out  the  leopard's  brains 
as  it  bore  him  to  the  ground  so  that  it  had  time  to  make 
only  one  bite;  but  this  bite  just  missed  crushing  in  the  skull, 
broke  the  jaw,  tore  off  one  ear,  and  caused  ghastly  wreck. 
He  spent  some  weeks  In  the  hospital  at  Nairobi,  and  then 
went  for  further  treatment  to  England;  his  place  In  the 
hospital  being  taken  by  another  man  who  had  been  injured 
by  a  leopard. 

There  had  been  quite  a  plague  of  wild  beasts  In  Nairobi 
itself.  One  family  had  been  waked  at  mldnlg'ht  by  a 
leopard  springing  on  the  roof  of  the  house  and  thence  to  an 
adjacent  shed;  it  finally  spent  a  couple  of  hours  on  the 
veranda.  A  lion  had  repeatedly  wandered  at  night  through 
the  outlying  (the  residential)  portion  of  the  town.  Dr. 
Milne,  the  head  of  the  Government  Medical  Department, 
had  nearly  ru.'  into  it  on  his  bicycle,  and,  as  a  measure  of 
precaution,  guests  going  out  to  dinner  usually  carried 
spears  or  rifles.  One  night  I  dined  with  the  provincial 
commissioner,  Mr.  Hobley,  and  the  next  with  the  town 
clerk.  Captain  Sanderson.  In  each  case  the  hostess,  the 
host,  and  the  house  were  all  delightful,  and  the  evening 
just  like  a  very  pleasant  evening  spent  anywhere  in  civiliza- 
tion; the  houses  were  only  half  a  mile  apart;  and  yet  on  the 
road    between    them  a   fortnight   previously  a   lady  on  a 


380  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

bicycle,  wheeling  down  to  a  rehearsal  of  "Trial  by  Jury," 
had  been  run  into  and  upset  by  a  herd  of  frightened  zebras. 
One  of  my  friends,  Captain  Smith,  Director  of  Surveys 
in  the  Protectorate,  had  figured  in  another  zebra  incident 
to  which  only  Mark  Twain  could  do  justice.  Captain  Smith 
lived  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  and  was  much  annoyed 
by  the  zebras  tearing  through  his  ground  and  trampling 
down  his  vegetables  and  flowers.  So  one  night,  by  his 
direction,  his  Masai  servant  sallied  out  and  speared  a 
zebra  which  was  tangled  in  a  wire  fence.  But  the  magis- 
trate, a  rigid  upholder  of  the  letter  of  the  law,  fined  the 
Masai  for  killing  game  without  a  license!  (A  touch  quite 
worthy  of  comparison  with  Mark  Twain's  account  of 
how,  when  he  called  for  assistance  while  drowning,  he  was 
arrested  for  disturbing  the  peace.)  Captain  Smith  de- 
cided that  next  time  there  should  be  no  taint  of  illegality 
about  his  behavior,  so  he  got  ropes  ready,  and  when  the 
zebras  returned  he  and  his  attendants  again  chased  them 
toward  the  wire  fences,  and  tied  up  one  which  got  caught 
therein;  and  then  with  much  difficulty  he  led  it  down 
town,  put  it  in  the  pound,  and  notified  Captain  Sanderson, 
the  town  clerk,  what  he  had  done.  This  proceeding  was  en- 
tirely regular;  and  so  was  all  that  followed.  For  seven 
days  the  zebra  was  kept  in  the  pound,  while  the  authorities 
solemnly  advertised  for  a  highly  improbable  owner;  then 
it  was  sold  at  auction,  being  brought  to  the  sale,  bucking, 
rolling,  and  fighting,  securely  held  by  ropes  in  the  hands 
of  various  stalwart  natives,  and  disposed  of  to  the  only 
bidder  for  five  rupees.  The  court  records  are  complete. 
The  District  Court  criminal  register,  under  date  of  Feb- 
ruary I,  1909,  contains  the  entry  of  the  prosecution  by 
the  Crown  through  "Mutwa  Wa.  Najaka  A.N."  of  the 
Masai  for  "killing  zebra  without  a  license  (under  section 
4/35  Game  Regulations  of  15th  April,  1906")  and  of  the 
infliction  of  a  fine  of  twenty  rupees.  The  sequel  appears 
in  the  Nairobi  Municipality  Pound  Book  under  date  of 
August  6,    1909.     In  the  column  headed  "Description  of 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU 


381 


Animal"  is  the  entry  "i  zebra";  under  the  heading  "By 
whom  impounded"  is  the  entry  "Major  Smith,  R.E."; 
under  the  heading  "Remarks"  is  the  entry  "Sold  by  Pub- 
lic Auctioneers  Raphael  &  Coy  on  24/8/09." 

We  had  with  us  several  recent  books  on  East  African 
big  game;  Chapman's  "On  Safari,"  dealing  alike  with 
the  hunting  and 
the  natural  his- 
tory of  big  game; 
Powell  Cotton's 
accounts  of  his 
noteworthy  expe- 
riences both  in 
hunting  and  in 
bold  exploration; 
Stigand's  capital 
studies  of  the 
spoor  and  habits 
of  big  game  (it 
is  to  be  regretted 
that  he  was  too 
modest  to  narrate 
some  of  his  own 
really  extraordi- 
nary adventures  in 
the  chase  of  dan- 
gerous beasts); 
and  Buxton's  ac- 
count of  his  two  African  trips.  Edward  North  Buxton's 
books  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  hunter  every- 
where, and  especially  of  every  young  hunter,  because  they 
teach  just  the  right  way  in  which  to  look  at  the  sport. 
With  Buxton  big-game  hunting  is  not  a  business  but  a 
pastime,  not  allowed  to  become  a  mania  or  in  any  way 
to  interfere  with  the  serious  occupations  of  life,  whether 
public  or  private ;  and  yet  as  he  has  carried  it  on  it 
is  much  more  than  a  mere  pastime,  it  is  a  craft,  a  pur- 


';;    ■'ii,'-   ' 

1 

m 

"^    '        '  ■  ""^^ 

Mr.  Roosevelt  in  a  bamboo  forest 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


382  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

suit  of  value  in  exercising  and  developing  hardihood  of 
body  and  the  virile  courage  and  resolution  which  necessarily 
lie  at  the  base  of  every  strong  and  manly  character.  He 
has  not  a  touch  of  the  game  butcher  in  him;  nor  has  he  a 
touch  of  that  craving  for  ease  and  luxury  the  indulgence  in 
which  turns  any  sport  into  a  sham  and  a  laughing-stock. 
Big-game  hunting,  pursued  as  he  has  pursued  it,  stands 
at  the  opposite  pole  from  those  so-called  sports  carried  on 
primarily  either  as  money-making  exhibitions,  or,  what  is 
quite  as  bad — though  the  two  evils  are  usually  found  in 
different  social  strata — in  a  spirit  of  such  luxurious  self- 
indulgence  as  to  render  them  at  best  harmless  extrava- 
gances, and  at  worst  forces  which  positively  tend  to  the 
weakening  of  moral  and  physical  fibre. 

On  October  26,  Tarlton,  Kermit,  Heller,  and  I  started 
from  the  railroad  station  of  Londiani,  for  the  Uasin  Gishu 
plateau  and  the  'Nzoi  River,  which  flows  not  far  from  the 
foot  of  Mount  Elgon.  This  stretch  of  country  has  appar- 
ently received  its  fauna  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Victoria 
Nyanza,  and  contains  several  kinds  of  antelope,  and  a  race 
or  variety  of  giraffe,  the  five-horned,  which  are  not  found 
to  the  eastward,  in  the  region  where  we  had  already  hunted. 

On  the  27th  we  were  marching  hard,  and  I  had  no 
chance  to  hunt;  I  would  have  liked  to  take  a  hunt,  because 
it  was  my  birthday.  The  year  before  I  had  celebrated  my 
fiftieth  birthday  by  riding  my  jumping  horse,  Roswell,  over 
all  the  jumps  in  Rock  Creek  Park,  at  Washington.  Ros- 
well is  a  safe  and  good  jumper,  and  a  very  easy  horse  to  sit 
at  a  jump;  he  took  me,  without  hesitation  or  error,  over 
everything,  from  the  water-jump  to  the  stone  wall,  the  rails, 
and  the  bank,  including  a  brush  hurdle  just  over  five  feet 
and  a  half  high. 

For  the  first  four  days  our  route  led  among  rolling 
hills  and  along  valleys  and  ravines,  the  country  being  so 
high  that  the  nights  were  actually  cold,  although  we  crossed 
and  recrossed  the  equator.  The  landscape  in  its  general 
effect  called  to  mind  southern  Oregon  and  northern  Cali- 


TO  THE   UASIN   GISHU  383 

fornia  rather  than  any  tropical  country.  Some  of  the  hills 
were  bald,  others  wooded  to  the  top;  there  were  wet 
meadows,  and  hill-sides  covered  with  tussocks  of  rank,  thick- 
growing  grass,  alternating  with  stretches  of  forest;  and  the 
chief  trees  of  the  forest  were  stately  cedars,  yews,  and  tall 
laurel-leaved  olives.  All  this  was,  at  least  in  superficial 
aspect,  northern  enough;  but  now  and  then  we  came  to 
patches  of  the  thoroughly  tropical  bamboo,  which  in  East 
Africa,  however,  one  soon  grows  to  associate  with  cold, 
rainy  weather,  for  it  only  grows  at  high  altitudes.  In  this 
country,  high,  cold,  rainy,  there  were  several  kinds  of  buck, 
but  none  in  any  numbers.  The  most  interesting  were  the 
roan  antelope,  which  went  in  herds.  Their  trails  led  every- 
where, across  the  high,  rolling  hill  pastures  of  coarse  grass, 
and  through  the  tangled  tree  groves  and  the  still,  lifeless 
bamboo  jungle.  They  were  found  in  herds  and  lived  in  the 
open,  feeding  on  the  bare  hill-sides  and  in  the  wet  valleys 
at  all  hours;  but  they  took  cover  freely,  and  when  the 
merciless  gales  blew  they  sought  shelter  in  woodland  and 
•jungle.  Usually  they  grazed,  but  once  I  saw  one  browsing. 
Both  on  our  way  in  and  on  our  way  back,  through  this  hill 
country,  we  shot  several  roan,  for,  though  their  horns  are 
poor,  they  form  a  distinct  sub-species,  peculiar  to  the  re- 
gion. The  roan  is  a  big  antelope,  nearly  as  tall,  although 
by  no  means  as  bulky,  as  an  eland,  with  curved  scimitar- 
like horns,  huge  ears,  and  face  markings  as  sharply  defined 
as  those  of  an  oryx.  It  is  found  here  and  there,  in  isolated 
localities,  throughout  Africa  south  of  the  Sahara,  and  is  of 
bold,  fierce  temper.  One  of  those  which  Kermit  shot  was 
only  crippled  by  the  first  bullet,  and  charged  the  gun- 
bearers,  squealing  savagely,  in  addition  to  using  its  horns; 
an  angry  roan,  like  a  sable,  is  said  sometimes  to  bite  with 
its  teeth.  Kermit  also  killed  a  ratel  or  honey  badger,  in  a 
bamboo  thicket;  an  interesting  beast;  its  back  snow  white 
and  the  rest  of  its  body  jet  black. 

As  on  the  Aberdares  and  the  slopes  of  Kenia,  the  nights 
among  these  mountains  were  cold;   sometimes  so  cold  that 


384 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


I  was  glad  to  wear  a  mackinaw,  a  lumberman's  jacket,  which 
had  been  given  me  by  Jack  Greenway,  and  which  I  cer- 
tainly never  expected  to  wear  in  Africa. 

The  porters  always  minded  cold,  especially  if  there  was 
rain,  and  I  was  glad  to  get  them  to  the  Uasin  Gishu,  where 
the  nights  were  merely  cool  enough  to  make  one  appre- 
ciate blankets, 
while  the  days 
were  never  op- 
pressively hot. 
Although  the 
Swahilis  have 
furnished  the 
model  for  all 
East  African 
safari  work, 
and  supply  the 
lingua  franca 
for  the  country, 
they  no  longer 
compose  the 
bulk  of  the  porters.  Of  our  porters  at  this  time  about  two- 
fifths  were  stalwart  M'nuwezi  from  German  East  Africa, 
two-fifths  were  Wakamba,  and  the  remainder  Swahilis  with 
half  a  dozen  Kavirondos  and  Kikuyus.  The  M'nuwezi  are 
the  strongest  of  all,  and  make  excellent  porters.  They  will 
often  be  as  much  as  two  or  three  years  away  from  their 
homes;  for  safari  work  is  very  attractive  to  the  best  type 
of  natives,  as  they  live  much  better  than  if  travelling  on 
their  own  account,  and  as  it  offers  almost  the  only  way  in 
which  they  can  earn  money.  The  most  severe  punishment 
that  can  be  inflicted  on  a  gun-bearer,  tent  boy,  sais,  or 
porter  is  to  dismiss  him  on  such  terms  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible for  him  again  to  be  employed  on  a  safari.  In 
camp  the  men  of  each  tribe  group  themselves  together  in 
parties,  each  man  sharing  any  unwonted  delicacy  with  his 
cronies. 


Kassitura  with  the  roan  antelope 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


TO  THE   UASIN   GISHU  385 

Very  rarely  did  we  have  to  take  such  long  marches  as  to 
exhaust  our  strapping  burden-bearers;  usually  they  came 
into  camp  in  high  good-humor,  singing  and  blowing  ante- 
lope horns;  and  in  the  evening,  after  the  posho  had  been 
distributed,  cooked,  and  eaten,  the  different  groups  would 
gather  each  around  its  camp-fire,  and  the  men  would  chant 
in  unison  while  the  flutes  wailed  and  the  buzzing  harps 
twanged.  Of  course  individuals  were  all  the  time  meeting 
with  accidents  or  falling  sick,  especially  when  they  had  the 
chance  to  gorge  themselves  on  game  that  we  had  killed; 
and  then  Cuninghame  or  Tarlton — than  whom  two  stancher 
and  pleasanter  friends,  keener  hunters,  or  better  safari 
managers  are  not  to  be  found  in  all  Africa — would  have 
to  add  the  functions  of  a  doctor  to  an  already  multifarious 
round  of  duties.  Some  of  the  men  had  to  be  watched  lest 
they  should  malinger;  others  were  always  complaining  of 
trifles;  others  never  complained  at  all.  Gosho,  our  excel- 
lent headman,  came  in  the  last  category.  On  this  Uasin 
Gishu  trip  we  noticed  him  limping  one  evening;  and  in- 
quiry developed  the  fact  that  the  previous  night,  while  In 
his  tent,  he  had  been  bitten  by  a  small  poisonous  snake. 
The  leg  was  much  swollen,  and  looked  angry  and  inflamed; 
but  Gosho  never  so  much  as  mentioned  the  Incident  until 
we  questioned  him,  and  In  a  few  days  was  as  well  as  ever. 
Heller's  chief  feeling,  by  the  way,  when  Informed  what  had 
happened,  was  one  of  indignation  because  the  offending 
snake,  after  paying  the  death  penalty,  had  been  thrown 
away  Instead  of  being  given  to  him  as  a  specimen. 

The  roans  were  calving  In  early  November;  whereas, 
when  we  went  thirty  miles  on,  at  an  elevation  a  thousand 
feet  less,  we  at  first  saw  no  very  young  fawns  accompany- 
ing the  hartebeests,  and  no  very  young  foals  with  the 
zebras.  These  hartebeests,  which  are  named  after  their 
discoverer.  Governor  Jackson,  are  totally  different  from  the 
hartebeests  of  the  Athi  and  the  Sotik  countries,  and  are 
larger  and  finer  In  every  way.  One  bull  I  shot  weighed, 
in  pieces,  four  hundred  and  seventy  pounds.    No  allowance 

25 


386  •  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

was  made  for  the  spilt  blood,  and  inasmuch  as  he  had 
been  hallalled,  I  think  his  live  weight  would  have  been 
nearly  four  hundred  and  ninety  pounds.  He  was  a  big, 
full-grown  bull,  but  not  of  extraordinary  size;  later  I  killed 
much  bigger  ones,  unusually  fine  specimens,  which  must  have 
weighed  well  over  five  hundred  pounds.  The  horns,  which 
are  sometimes  two  feet  long,  are  set  on  great  bony  pedicels, 
so  that  the  face  seems  long  and  homely  even  for  a  harte- 
beest.  The  first  two  or  three  of  these  hartebeests  which  I 
killed  were  shot  at  long  range,  for,  like  all  game,  they  are 
sometimes  exceedingly  wary;  but  we  soon  found  that 
normally  they  were  as  tame  as  they  were  plentiful.  We 
frequently  saw  them  close  by  the  herds  of  the  Boer  settlers. 
They  were  the  common  game  of  the  plains.  At  times  of 
course  they  were  diflficult  to  approach;  but  again  and  again, 
usually  when  we  were  riding,  we  came  upon  not  only  in- 
dividuals but  herds,  down  wind  and  in  plain  view,  which 
permitted  us  to  approach  to  within  a  hundred  yards  before 
they  definitely  took  flight.  Their  motions  look  ungainly 
until  they  get  into  their  full  speed  stride.  They  utter  no 
sound  save  the  usual  hartebeest  sneeze. 

There  were  bohor  reedbuck  also,  pretty  creatures,  about 
the  size  of  a  white-tail  deer,  which  lay  close  in  the  reedbeds, 
or  in  hollows  among  the  tall  grass,  and  usually  offered  rather 
difficult  running  shots  or  very  long  standing  shots.  Still 
prettier  were  the  little  oribi.  These  are  grass  antelopes, 
frequenting  much  the  same  places  as  the  duiker  and  stein- 
buck  and  not  much  larger.  Where  the  grass  was  long  they 
would  lie  close,  with  neck  flat  along  the  ground,  and  dart 
off  when  nearly  stepped  on,  with  a  pig-like  rush  like  that 
of  a  reedbuck  or  duiker  in  similar  thick  cover.  But  where 
the  grass  was  short,  and  especially  where  it  was  burned, 
they  did  not  trust  to  lying  down  and  hiding;  on  the  con- 
trary, in  such  places  they  were  conspicuous  little  creatures, 
and  trusted  to  their  speed  and  alert  vigilance  for  their 
safety.  They  run  very  fast,  with  great  bounds,  and  when 
they  stand — usually  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU 


387 


yaras — they  face  the  hunter,  the  forward-thrown  ears  be- 
ing the  most  noticeable  thing  about  them.  We  found  that 
each  oribi  bagged  cost  us  an  unpleasantly  large  number  of 
cartridges. 

One  day  we  found  where  a  large  party  of  hyenas  had 
established  their  day  lairs  in  the  wet  seclusion  of  some  reed- 


A  hyena  by  flashlight 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alden  Loring 


beds.  We  beat  through  these  reedbeds,  and,  in  the  words 
once  used  by  an  old  plains  friend  in  describing  the  be- 
havior of  a  family  of  black  bears  under  similar  circum- 
stances, the  hyenas  "came  bilin'  out."  As  they  bolted 
Kermit  shot  one  and  I  another;  his  bit  savagely  at  a  stick 
with  which  one  of  the  gun-bearers  poked  it.  It  is  difficult 
at  first  glance  to  tell  the  sex  of  a  hyena,  and  our  followers 
stoutly  upheld  the  wide-spread  African  belief  that  they  are 
bi-sexual,  being  male  or  female  as  they  choose.  A  wounded 
or  trapped  hyena  will  of  course  bite  if  seized,  but  shows 
no  sign  of  the  ferocious  courage  which  marks  the  leopard 
under  such  circumstances;    for  the  hyena  is  as  cowardly 


388  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

as  it  is  savage,  although  its  size  and  the  tremendous  power 
of  its  jaws  ought  to  make  it  as  formidable  as  the  fierce 
spotted  cat. 

The  day  after  this  incident  we  came  on  a  herd  of  giraffe. 
It  was  Kermit's  turn  for  a  giraffe;  and  just  as  the  herd  got 
under  way  he  wounded  the  big  bull.  Away  went  the  tall 
creatures,  their  tails  twisting  and  curling,  as  they  can- 
tered along  over  the  rough  veldt  and  among  the  thorn- 
bushes,  at  that  gait  of  theirs  which  looks  so  leisurely  and 
which  yet  enables  them  to  cover  so  much  ground.  After 
them  we  tore,  Kermit  and  Tarlton  in  the  lead;  and  a  fine 
chase  we  had.  It  was  not  until  we  had  gone  two  or  three 
miles  that  the  bull  lagged  behind  the  herd.  I  was  riding 
the  tranquil  sorrel,  not  a  speedy  horse;  and  by  this  time  my 
weight  was  telling  on  him.  Kermit  and  his  horse  had 
already  turned  a  somersault,  having  gone  into  an  ant-bear 
hole,  which  the  tall  grass  concealed;  but  they  were  up  and 
off  in  an  instant.  All  of  Tranquillity's  enthusiasm  had 
vanished,  and  only  by  constant  thumping  with  heels  and 
gun  butt  could  I  keep  him  at  a  slow  hand  gallop,  and  in 
sight  of  the  leaders.  We  came  to  a  slight  rise,  where  the 
rank  grass  grew  high  and  thick;  and  Tranquillity  put  both 
his  forelegs  into  an  ant-bear  hole,  and  with  obvious  relief 
rolled  gently  over  on  his  side.  It  was  not  really  a  tumble; 
he  hailed  the  ant-bear  burrow  as  offering  a  way  out  of  a 
chase  in  which  he  had  grown  to  take  less  than  no  interest. 
Besides,  he  really  was  winded,  and  when  we  got  up  I  could 
barely  get  him  into  a  canter;  and  I  saw  no  more  of  the  run. 
Meanwhile  Kermit  and  Tarlton  raced  alongside  the  wounded 
bull,  one  on  each  flank,  and  started  him  toward  camp, 
which  was  about  five  miles  from  where  the  hunt  began. 
Two  or  three  times  he  came  to  a  stand-still,  and  turned  first 
toward  one  and  then  toward  the  other  of  his  pursuers, 
almost  as  if  he  meditated  a  charge;  but  they  shouted  at 
him  and  he  resumed  his  flight.  They  brought  him  within 
three  hundred  yards  of  camp,  and  then  Kermit  leaped  off 
and  finished  him. 


TO  THE  UASIN   GISHU  389 

This  bull  was  a  fine  specimen,  colored  almost  exactly 
like  the  giraffes  of  the  Athi  and  Sotik,  but  with  much  more 
horn  development.  I  doubt  whether  this  five-horned  kind 
is  more  than  a  local  race.  The  bulls  have  been  described 
as  very  dark;  but  the  one  thus  shot,  a  big  and  old  master 
bull,  was  unusually  light,  and  in  the  herd  there  were  individ- 
uals of  every  shade,  much  the  darkest  being  a  rather  small 
cow.  Indeed,  in  none  of  the  varieties  of  giraffe  did  we  find 
that  the  old  bulls  were  markedly  darker  than  the  others; 
many  of  them  were  dark,  but  some  of  the  biggest  were  light- 
colored,  and  the  darkest  individuals  in  a  herd  were  often 
cows.  Giraffes,  by  the  way,  do  sometimes  lie  down  to 
sleep,  but  not  often.* 

In  order  that  Heller  might  take  care  of  the  giraffe  skin 
we  had  to  spend  a  couple  of  days  where  we  were  then 
camped.  The  tents  were  pitched  near  a  spring  of  good 
water,  beside  a  slight  valley  in  which  there  were  marshy 
spots  and  reedbeds.  The  country  was  rolling,  and  covered 
with  fine  grass,  unfortunately  so  tall  as  to  aff^ord  secure 
cover  for  lions.  There  were  stretches  bare  of  trees,  and 
other  stretches  with  a  sparse,  scattered  growth  of  low 
thorns  or  of  the  big,  glossy-leaved  bush  which  I  have  spoken 
of  as  the  African  jessamine  because  of  the  singularly  sweet 
and  jessamine-like  fragrance  of  its  flowers.  Most  of  these 
bushes  were  in  full  bloom,  as  they  had  been  six  months 
before  on  the  Athi  and  three  months  before  near  Kenia; 
some  bore  berries,  of  which  it  is  said  that  the  wild  elephant 
herds  are  fond. 

It  is  hard  to  lay  down  general  rules  as  to  the  blossoming 
times  of  plants  or  breeding  times  of  animals  in  equatorial 

*  This  is  just  one  of  the  points  as  to  which  no  one  observer  should  dogmatize  or 
try  to  lay  down  general  laws  with  no  exceptions.  Moreover,  the  personal  equation 
of  even  the  most  honest  observer  must  always  be  taken  into  account  in  considering 
not  merely  matters  like  this,  but  even  such  things  as  measurements.  For  example, 
Neuman,  in  his  "Elephant  Hunting,"  gives  measurements  of  the  height  of  both 
elephants  and  Grevy's  zebra;  our  measurements  made  the  elephants  taller,  and  the 
big  zebras  less  tall,  than  he  found  them.  Measurements  of  the  lengths  of  lions, 
made  by  different  observers,  are  for  this  reason  rarely  of  much  value  for  purposes 
of  comparison. 


390  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

Africa.  Before  we  left  the  Uasin  Gishu  table-land  some 
of  the  hartebeest  cows  appeared  with  new-born  calves. 
Some  of  the  acacias  had  put  forth  their  small,  globular, 
yellow  blossoms,  just  as  the  acacias  on  the  Athi  Plains  were 
doing  in  the  previous  May.  The  blue  lupins  were  flower- 
ing, for  it  is  a  cool,  pleasant  country. 

Our  camp  here  was  attractive,  and  Kermit  and  I  took 
advantage  of  our  leisure  to  fill  out  the  series  of  specimens 
of  the  big  hartebeest  and  the  oribi  which  Heller  needed 
for  the  National  Museum.  The  flesh  of  the  oribis  was  re- 
served for  our  own  table;  that  of  the  kongonis — which  had 
been  duly  hallalled  by  the  Moslems  among  our  gun-bearers 
— was  turned  over  to  what  might  be  called  the  officers' 
mess  of  the  safari  proper,  the  headmen,  cooks,  tent  boys, 
gun-bearers,  and  saises;  while  of  course  the  skinners  and 
porters  who  happened  to  be  out  with  us  when  any  animal 
was  slain  got  their  share  of  the  meat.  We  also  killed  two 
more  hyenas;  one,  a  dog,  weighed  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds,  being  smaller  than  those  Heller  had  trapped  while 
skinning  the  first  bull  elephant  I  shot  in  the  Kenia  forest. 

Good  Ali,  my  tent  boy,  kept  bowls  of  the  sweet-scented 
jessamine  on  our  dining-table;  now  that  there  were  four 
of  us  together  again  we  used  the  dining-tent,  which  I  had 
discarded  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  trip.  Bakhari  had  been 
rather  worn  down  by  the  work  on  the  Guaso  Nyero,  and  in 
his  place  I  had  taken  Kongoni,  a  Wakamba  with  filed 
teeth,  like  my  second  gun-bearer,  Gouvimali,  but  a  Moslem 
— although  his  Moslemism  did  not  go  very  deep.  Kon- 
goni was  the  best  gun-bearer  I  had  yet  had,  very  willing, 
and  excellent  both  at  seeing  and  tracking  game.  Kermit's 
two  gun-bearers  were  Juma  Yohari,  a  coal-black  Swahili 
Moslem,  and  Kassitura,  a  Christian  negro  from  Uganda. 
Both  of  them  were  as  eager  to  do  everything  for  Kermit 
as  mine  were  to  render  me  any  service  great  or  small;  and 
in  addition  they  were  capital  men  for  their  special  work. 
Juma  was  always  smiling  and  happy,  and  was  a  high 
favorite  among  his  fellows;    at  lunch,  when  we  had  any,  if 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU 


391 


I  gave  my  own  followers  some  of  the  chocolate,  or  whatever 
else  it  was  that  I  had  put  in  my  saddle  pocket,  I  always 
noticed  that  they  called  up  Yohari  to  share  it.  He  it  was 
who  would  receive  the  colored  cards  from  my  companions' 
tobacco  pouches,  or  from  the  packages  of  chocolate,  and 
after  puzzling  over  them  until  he  could  himself  identify 
the  brilliantly 
colored  ladies, 
gentlemen,  little 
girls,  and  wild 
beasts,  would 
volubly  explain 
them  to  the 
others.  Kassitu- 
ra,  quite  as  effi- 
cient and  hard- 
working, was  a 
huge,  solemn 
black  man,  as 
faithful  and  un- 
complaining a 
soul  as  I  ever 
met.  Kermit 
had  picked  him 
out  from  among 
the  porters  to 
carry  his  came- 
ra, and  had  then 

promoted  him  to  be  gun-bearer.  In  his  place  he  had  taken 
as  camera-bearer  an  equally  powerful  porter,  a  heathen 
M'nuwezi  named  Mali.  His  tent  boy  had  gone  crooked;  and 
one  evening  some  months  later  after  a  long  and  trying  march 
he  found  Mali,  whose  performance  of  his  new  duties  he  had 
been  closely  watching,  the  only  man  up;  and  Mali,  always 
willing,  turned  in  of  his  own  accord  to  help  get  Kermit's 
tent  in  shape;  so  Kermit  suddenly  told  him  he  would  pro- 
mote him  to  be  tent  boy.     At  first  Mali  did  not  quite  under- 


Yohari  with  the  waterbuck  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


S92  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

stand;  then  he  pondered  a  moment  or  two,  and  suddenly 
leaped  into  the  air  exclaiming  in  Swahili,  "Now  I  am  a  big 
man."  And  he  faithfully  strove  to  justify  his  promotion. 
In  similar  fashion  Kermit  picked  out  on  the  Nairobi  race- 
track a  Kikuyu  sais  named  Magi,  and  brought  him  out 
with  us.  Magi  turned  out  the  best  sais  in  the  safari;  and 
besides  doing  his  own  duty  so  well  he  was  always  ex- 
ceedingly interested  in  everything  that  concerned  his  own 
Bwana,  Kermit,  or  me — from  the  proper  arrangement  of 
our  sunpads  to  the  success  of  our  shooting. 

From  the  giraffe  camp  we  went  two  days'  journey  to 
the  'Nzoi  River.  Until  this  Uasin  Gishu  trip  we  had  been 
on  waters  which  either  vanished  in  the  desert  or  else  flowed 
into  the  Indian  Ocean.  Now  we  had  crossed  the  divide, 
and  were  on  the  Nile  side  of  the  watershed.  The  'Nzoi,  a 
rapid  muddy  river,  passing  south  of  Mount  Elgon,  empties 
into  the  Victoria  Nyanza.  Our  route  to  its  bank  led  across 
a  rolling  country,  covered  by  a  dense  growth  of  tall  grass, 
and  in  most  places  by  open  thorn  scrub,  while  here  and 
there,  in  the  shallow  valleys  or  depressions,  were  swamps. 
There  were  lions,  and  at  night  we  heard  them;  but  in  such 
long  grass  it  was  wellnigh  hopeless  to  look  for  them.  Evi- 
dently troops  of  elephants  occasionally  visited  these  plains, 
for  the  tops  of  the  little  thorn-trees  were  torn  off  and  browsed 
down  by  the  mighty  brutes.  How  they  can  tear  off  and 
swallow  such  prickly  dainties  as  these  thorn  branches, 
armored  with  needle-pointed  spikes,  is  a  mystery.  Tarlton 
told  me  that  he  had  seen  an  elephant,  while  feeding  greedily 
on  the  young  top  of  a  thorn-tree,  prick  its  trunk  until  it 
uttered  a  little  scream  or  whine  of  pain;  and  it  then  in  a 
fit  of  pettishness  revenged  itself  by  wrecking  the  thorn-tree. 

Game  abounded  on  the  plains.  We  saw  a  couple  of 
herds  of  giraffes.  The  hartebeests  were  the  most  plenti- 
ful and  the  least  shy;  time  after  time  a  small  herd  loitered 
until  we  were  within  a  hundred  yards  before  cantering 
away.  Once  or  twice  we  saw  topi  among  them;  and  often 
there  were  mixed  herds  of  zebras  and  hartebeests,     Oribi 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  393 

were  common,  and  sometimes  uttered  a  peculiar  squealing 
whistle  when  they  first  saw  us.  The  reedbuck  also  whistled, 
but  their  whistle  was  entirely  distinct.  It  was  astonishing 
how  close  the  reedbuck  lay.  Again  and  again  we  put 
them  up  within  a  few  feet  of  us  from  patches  of  reeds  or 
hollows  in  the  long  grass.  A  much  more  singular  habit  is 
the  way  in  which  they  share  these  retreats  with  dangerous 
wild  beasts;  a  trait  common  also  to  the  cover-loving  bush- 
buck.  From  one  of  the  patches  of  reeds  in  which  Kermit 
and  I  shot  two  hyenas  a  reedbuck  doe  immediately  after- 
ward took  flight.  She  had  been  reposing  peacefully  during 
the  day  within  fifty  yards  of  several  hyenas!  Tarlton  had 
more  than  once  found  both  reedbuck  and  bushbuck  in  com- 
paratively small  patches  of  cover  which  also  held  lions. 

It  is,  by  the  way,  a  little  difficult  to  know  what  names 
to  use  in  distinguishing  between  the  sexes  of  African  game. 
The  trouble  is  one  which  obtains  in  all  new  countries,  where 
the  settlers  have  to  name  new  beasts;  and  is,  of  course, 
primarily  due  to  the  fact  that  the  terms  already  found  in 
the  language  originally  applied  only  to  domestic  animals 
and  to  European  beasts  of  the  chase.  Africanders,  whether 
Dutch  or  English,  speak  of  all  antelope,  of  either  sex,  as 
"buck."  Then  they  call  the  males  and  females  of  the 
larger  kinds  bulls  and  cows,  just  as  Americans  do  when 
they  speak  of  moose,  wapiti,  and  caribou;  and  the  males 
and  females  of  the  smaller  kinds  they  usually  speak  of  as 
rams  and  ewes. 

While  on  safari  to  the  'Nzoi  I  was  even  more  interested 
in  honey  birds  which  led  us  to  honey  than  I  was  in  the 
game.  Before  starting  for  Africa  John  Burroughs  had  es- 
pecially charged  me  to  look  personally  into  this  extraor- 
dinary habit  of  the  honey  bird;  a  habit  so  extraordinary 
that  he  was  inclined  to  disbelieve  the  reality  of  its  ex- 
istence. But  it  unquestionably  does  exist.  Every  experi- 
enced hunter  and  every  native  who  lives  in  the  wilderness 
has  again  and  again  been  an  eye-witness  of  it.  Kermit, 
in    addition    to    his    experience    in    the    Sotik,    had    been 


394 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


led  by  a  honey  bird  to  honey  in  a  rock,  near  Lake  Han- 
nington.  Once  while  I  was  tracking  game  a  honey  bird 
made  his  appearance,  chattering  loudly  and  flying  beside 
us;  I  let  two  of  the  porters  follow  it,  and  it  led  them  to 
honey.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  we  reached  the  'Nzoi, 
a  honey  bird  appeared  beside  the  safari,  behaving  in  the 
same  manner.  Some  of  the  men  begged  to  be  allowed  to 
follow  it;  while  they  were  talking  to  me  the  honey  bird 
flew  to  a  big  tree  fifty  yards  off,  and  called  loudly  as  it 

flitted  to  and  fro 
in  the  branches; 
and  sure  enough 
there  was  honey 
in  the  tree.  I  let 
some  of  the  men 
stay  to  get  the 
honey;  but  they 
found  little  ex- 
cept comb  filled 
with  grubs. 
Some  of  this  was 
put  aside  for  the 
bird,  which  ate 
the  grubs.  The 
natives  believe  that  misfortune  will  follow  any  failure  on 
their  part  to  leave  the  honey  bird  its  share  of  the  booty. 
They  also  insist  that  sometimes  the  honey  bird  will  lead  a 
man  to  a  serpent  or  wild  beast;  and  sure  enough  Dr. 
Mearns  was  once  thus  led  up  to  a  rhinoceros.  While  camped 
on  the  'Nzoi  the  honey  birds  were  almost  a  nuisance;  they 
were  very  common,  and  were  continually  accompanying 
us  as  we  hunted,  flying  from  tree  to  tree,  and  never  ceasing 
their  harsh  chatter.  Several  times  we  followed  birds,  which 
in  each  case  led  us  to  bee-trees^  and  then  perched  quietly 
by  until  the  gun-bearers  and  porters  (Gouvimali  shone 
on  such  occasions)  got  out  the  honey — which  we  found 
excellent  eating,  by  the  way. 


Tarlton  and  singsing  shot  by  Mr   Roosevelt 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


TO   THE   UASIN    GISHU  395 

Our  camp  here  was  in  a  beautiful  country,  and  game, 
for  the  most  part  Uganda  kob  and  singsing  waterbuck,  often 
fed  in  sight  of  the  tents.  The  kob  is  a  small  short-haired 
waterbuck,  with  shghtly  different  horns.  It  is  a  chunky 
antelope,  with  a  golden-red  coat;  I  weighed  one  old  buck 
which  I  shot  and  it  tipped  the  beam  at  two  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds;  Kermit  killed  a  bigger  one,  weighing  two 
hundred  and  forty  pounds,  but  its  horns  were  poorer.  In 
their  habits  the  kob  somewhat  resemble  impalla,  the  does 
being  found  in  bands  of  twenty  or  thirty  with  a  single 
master  buck;  and  they  sometimes  make  great  impalla-like 
bounds.  They  fed,  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  in  the  fiats  near 
the  river,  and  along  the  edges  of  the  swamps,  and  were 
not  very  wary.  They  never  tried  to  hide,  and  were  always 
easily  seen;  in  utter  contrast  to  the  close-lying,  skulking, 
bohor  reedbuck,  which  lay  like  a  rabbit  in  the  long  grass 
or  reeds.  The  kob,  on  the  contrary,  were  always  anxious 
themselves  to  see  round  about,  and,  like  waterbuck  and 
hartebeest,  frequently  used  the  ant-heaps  as  lookout  sta- 
tions. It  was  a  pretty  sight  to  see  a  herd  of  the  bright-red 
creatures  clustered  on  a  big  ant-hill,  all  the  necks  out- 
stretched and  all  the  ears  thrown  forward.  The  females 
are  hornless.  By  the  middle  of  November  we  noticed  an 
occasional  new-born  calf. 

The  handsome,  shaggy-coated,  singsing  waterbuck  had 
much  the  same  habits  as  the  kob.  Like  the  kob  they  fed 
at  all  hours  of  the  day;  but  they  were  more  wary  and  more 
apt  to  be  found  in  country  where  there  were  a  good  many 
bushes  or  small  trees.  Waterbuck  and  kob  sometimes  asso- 
ciated together. 

The  best  singsing  bull  I  got  I  owed  to  Tarlton's  good 
eyesight  and  skill  in  tracking  and  stalking.  The  herd  of 
which  he  was  master  bull  were  shy,  and  took  the  alarm 
just  as  we  first  saw  them.  Tarlton  followed  their  trail  for  a 
couple  of  miles,  and  then  stalked  them  to  an  inch,  by  the 
dextrous  use  of  a  couple  of  bushes  and  an  ant-hill;  the 
ant-hill  being  reached  after  a  two  hundred  yards'  crawl, 


S96  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

first  on  all-fours  and  then  flat  on  the  ground,  which  re- 
sulted in  my  getting  a  good  off-hand  shot  at  a  hundred  and 
eighty  yards.  At  this  time,  about  the  middle  of  November, 
some  of  the  cows  had  new-born  calves.  One  day  I  shot  a 
hartebeest  bull,  with  horns  twenty-four  inches  long,  as  it 
stood  on  the  top  of  an  ant-heap.  On  going  up  to  it  we 
noticed  something  behind  a  little  bush,  sixty  yards  off. 
We  were  puzzled  what  it  could  be,  but  finally  made  out  a 
waterbuck  cow;  and  a  minute  or  two  later  away  she  bounded 
to  safety,  followed  by  a  wee  calf.  The  porters  much  ap- 
preciated the  flesh  of  the  waterbuck.  We  did  not.  It  is  the 
poorest  eating  of  African  antelope — and  among  the  big 
antelope  only  the  eland  is  good  as  a  steady  diet. 

One  day  we  drove  a  big  swamp,  putting  a  hundred  por- 
ters across  it  in  line,  while  Kermit  and  I  walked  a  little 
ahead  of  them  along  the  edges,  he  on  one  side  and  I  on  the 
other.  I  shot  a  couple  of  bushbuck,  a  ewe  and  a  young 
ram;  and  after  the  drive  was  over  he  shot  a  female  leopard 
as  she  stood  on  the  side  of  an  ant-hill. 

There  were  a  number  of  both  reedbuck  and  bushbuck 
in  the  swamp.  The  reedbuck  were  all  ewes,  v/hich  we  did 
not  want.  There  were  one  or  two  big  bushbuck  rams,  but 
they  broke  back  through  the  beaters;  and  so  did  two 
bushbuck  ewes  and  one  reedbuck  ewe,  one  of  the  bushbuck 
ewes  actually  knocking  down  a  beater.  They  usually 
either  cleared  out  while  the  beaters  were  still  half  a  mile 
distant,  or  else  waited  until  they  were  almost  trodden  on. 
The  bushbuck  rams  were  very  dark  colored;  the  hornless 
ewes,  and  the  young,  were  a  brilliant  red,  the  belly,  the 
under  side  and  edges  of  the  conspicuous  fluffy  tail,  and  a 
few  dim  spots  on  the  cheeks  and  flanks,  being  Vv^hite.  Al- 
though these  buck  frequent  thick  cover,  forest,  or  swamp, 
and  trust  for  their  safety  to  hiding,  and  to  eluding  observa- 
tion by  their  stealthy,  skulking  ways,  their  coloration  has  not 
the  smallest  protective  value,  being  on  the  contrary  very 
conspicuous  in  both  sexes,  but  especially  in  the  females  and 
young,  who  most  need  protection.     Bushbuck  utter  a  loud 


TO  THE   UASIN   GISIIU 


3'J' 


bark.  The  hooves  of  those  we  shot  were  very  long,  as  is 
often  the  case  with  water-loving,  marsh-frequenting  species. 
There  is  a  curious  collar-like  space  around  the  neck  on 
which  there  is  no  hair.  Although  if  anything  smaller  than 
our  white-tail  deer,  the  bushbuck  is  a  vicious  and  redoubt- 
able fighter,  and  will  charge  a  man  without  hesitation. 

The  last  day  we  were  at  the  'Nzoi  the  porters  petitioned 
for  one  ample  meal  of  meat;    and  we  shot  a  dozen  buck 


Juma  Yohari  with  Nilotic  bushbuck 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 

for  them — kongoni,  kob,  and  singsing.  One  of  the  latter, 
a  very  fine  bull,  fairly  charged  Kermit  and  his  gun-bearer 
when  they  got  within  a  few  yards  of  it,  as  it  lay  wounded. 
This  bull  grunted  loudly  as  he  charged;  the  grunt  of  an 
oryx  under  similar  circumstances  is  almost  a  growl.  On 
this  day  both  Kermit  and  I  were  led  to  bee-trees  by  honey 
birds  and  took  some  of  the  honey  for  lunch.  Kermit  stayed 
after  his  boys  had  left  the  tree,  so  as  to  see  exactly  what 
the  honey  bird  did-     The  boys  had  smoked  out  the  bees, 


398  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

and  when  they  left  the  tree  was  still  smoking.  Throughout 
the  process  the  honey  bird  had  stayed  quietly  in  a  neigh- 
boring tree,  occasionally  uttering  a  single  bubbling  cluck. 
As  soon  as  the  boys  left,  it  flew  straight  for  the  smoking 
bee-tree,  uttering  a  long  trill,  utterly  different  from  the 
chattering  noise  made  while  trying  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  men  and  lead  them  to  the  tree;  and  not  only  did  it 
eat  the  grubs,  but  it  also  ate  the  bees  that  were  stupefied 
by  the  smoke. 

Next  day  we  moved  camp  to  the  edge  of  a  swamp  about 
five  miles  from  the  river.  Near  the  tents  was  one  of  the 
trees  which,  not  knowing  its  real  name,  we  called  "sausage- 
tree";  the  seeds  or  fruits  are  encased  in  a  kind  of  hard  gourd, 
the  size  of  a  giant  sausage,  which  swings  loosely  at  the  end 
of  a  long  tendril.  The  swamp  was  half  or  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  across,  with  one  or  two  ponds  in  the  middle,  from 
which  we  shot  ducks.  Francolins — delicious  eating,  as  the 
ducks  were  also — uttered  their  grating  calls  near  by;  while 
oribi  and  hartebeest  were  usually  to  be  seen  from  the  tents. 
The  hartebeest,  by  the  way,  in  its  three  forms,  is  much  the 
commonest  game  animal  of  East  Africa. 

A  few  miles  beyond  this  swamp  we  suddenly  came  on  a 
small  herd  of  elephants  in  the  open.  There  were  eight 
cows  and  two  calves,  and  they  were  moving  slowly,  feeding 
on  the  thorny  tops  of  the  scattered  mimosas,  and  of  other 
bushes  which  were  thornless.  The  eyesight  of  elephants  is 
very  bad;  I  doubt  whether  they  see  more  clearly  than  a 
rather  near-sighted  man;  and  we  walked  up  to  within 
seventy  yards  of  these,  slight  though  the  cover  was,  so  that 
Kermit  could  try  to  photograph  them.  We  did  not  need  to 
kill  another  cow  for  the  National  Museum,  and  so  after  we 
had  looked  at  the  huge,  interesting  creatures  as  long  as  we 
wished,  we  croaked  and  whistled,  and  they  moved  off  with 
leisurely  indifference.  There  is  always  a  fascination  about 
watching  elephants;  they  are  such  giants,  they  are  so  intel- 
ligent— much  more  so  than  any  other  game,  except  perhaps 
the  lion,  whose  intelligence  has  a  very  sinister  bent — and 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  399 

they  look  so  odd  with  their  great  ears  flapping  and  their 
trunks  hfting  and  curHng.  Elephants  are  rarely  absolutely 
still  for  any  length  of  time;  now  and  then  they  flap  an  ear, 
or  their  bodies  sway  slightly,  while  at  intervals  they  utter 
curious  internal  rumblings,  or  trumpet  gently.  These  were 
feeding  on  saplings  of  the  mimosas  and  other  trees,  ap- 
parently caring  nothing  for  the  thorns  of  the  former;  they 
would  tear  off  branches,  big  or  little,  or  snap  a  trunk  short 
off  if  the  whim  seized  them.  They  swallowed  the  leaves  and 
twigs  of  these  trees;  but  I -have  known  them  to  merely  chew 
and  spit  out  the  stems  of  certain  bushes. 

After  leaving  the  elephants  we  were  on  our  way  back  to 
camp  when  we  saw  a  white  man  in  the  trail  ahead;  and  on 
coming  nearer  whom  should  it  prove  to  be  but  Carl  Akeley, 
who  was  out  on  a  trip  for  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  in  New  York.  We  went  v/ith  him  to  his  camp, 
where  we  found  Mrs.  Akeley,  Clark,  who  was  assisting  him, 
and  Messrs.  McCutcheon  and  Stevenson  who  were  along 
on  a  hunting  trip.  They  were  old  friends  and  I  was  very 
glad  to  see  them.  McCutcheon,  the  cartoonist,  had  been 
at  a  farewell  lunch  given  me  by  Robert  Collier  just  before  I 
left  New  York,  and  at  the  lunch  we  had  been  talking  much 
of  George  Ade,  and  the  first  question  I  put  to  him  was 
''Where  is  George  Ade?"  for  if  one  unexpectedly  meets  an 
American  cartoonist  on  a  hunting  trip  in  mid-Africa  there 
seems  no  reason  why  one  should  not  also  see  his  crony, 
an  American  playwright.  A  year  previously  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Akeley  had  lunched  with  me  at  the  White  House,  and  we 
had  talked  over  our  proposed  African  trips.  Akeley,  an  old 
African  wanderer,  was  going  out  with  the  especial  purpose 
of  getting  a  group  of  elephants  for  the  American  Museum, 
and  was  anxious  that  I  should  shoot  one  or  two  of  them 
for  him.  I  had  told  him  that  I  certainly  would  if  it  were 
a  possibility;  and  on  learning  that  we  had  just  seen  a  herd 
of  cows  he  felt — ^as  I  did — that  the  chance  had  come  for 
me  to  fulfil  my  promise.  So  we  decided  that  he  should 
camp  with  us  that  night,  and  that  next  morning  we  would 


400  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

start  with  a  light  outfit  to  see  whether  we  could  not  over- 
take the  herd. 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  that  evening.  After  dark 
some  of  the  porters  went  through  the  reeds  to  get  water  from 
the  pond  in  the  middle  of  the  swamp.  I  was  sitting  in  my 
tent  when  a  loud  yelling  and  screaming  rose  from  the  swamp, 
and  in  rushed  Kongoni  to  say  that  one  of  the  men,  while 
drawing  water,  had  been  seized  by  a  lion.  Snatching  up 
a  rifle  I  was  off  at  a  run  for  the  swamp,  calling  for  lanterns; 
Kermit  and  Tarlton  joined  me,  the  lanterns  were  brought, 
and  we  reached  the  meadow  of  short  marsh  grass  which 
surrounded  the  high  reeds  in  the  middle.  No  sooner  were 
we  on  this  meadow  than  there  were  loud  snortings  in  the 
darkness  ahead  of  us,  and  then  the  sound  of  a  heavy  ani- 
mal galloping  across  our  front.  It  now  developed  that 
there  was  no  lion  in  the  case  at  all,  but  that  the  porters  had 
been  chased  by  a  hippo.  I  should  not  have  supposed  that 
a  hippo  would  live  in  such  a  small,  isolated  swamp;  but 
there  he  was  on  the  meadow  in  front  of  me,  invisible,  but 
snorting,  and  galloping  to  and  fro.  Evidently  he  was  much 
interested  in  the  lights,  and  we  thought  he  might  charge 
us;  but  he  did  not,  retreating  slowly  as  we  advanced,  until 
he  plunged  into  the  little  pond.  Hippos  are  sometimes 
dangerous  at  night,  and  so  we  waded  through  the  swamp 
until  we  came  to  the  pool  at  which  the  porters  filled  their 
buckets,  and  stood  guard  over  them  until  they  were  through; 
while  the  hippo,  unseen  in  the  darkness,  came  closer  to  us, 
snorting  and  plunging — possibly  from  wrath  and  insolence, 
but  more  probably  from  mere  curiosity. 

Next  morning  Akeley,  Tarlton,  Kermit,  and  I  started 
on  our  elephant  hunt.  We  were  travelling  light.  I  took 
nothing  but  my  bedding,  wash  kit,  spare  socks,  and  slippers, 
all  in  a  roll  of  waterproof  canvas.  We  went  to  where  we 
had  seen  the  herd  and  then  took  up  the  trail,  Kongoni  and 
two  or  three  other  gun-bearers  walking  ahead  as  trackers. 
They  did  their  work  well.  The  elephants  had  not  been  in 
the  least  alarmed.     Where  they  had  walked  in  single  file 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  401 

it  was  easy  to  follow  their  trail;  but  the  trackers  had  hard 
work  puzzling  it  out  where  the  animals  had  scattered  out 
and  loitered  along  feeding.  The  trail  led  up  and  down 
hills  and  through  open  thorn  scrub,  and  it  crossed  and 
recrossed  the  wooded  watercourses  in  the  bottoms  of  the 
valleys.  At  last,  after  going  some  ten  miles  we  came  on 
sign  where  the  elephants  had  fed  that  morning,  and  four 
or  five  miles  further  on  we  overtook  them.  That  we  did 
not  scare  them  into  flight  was  due  to  Tarlton.  The  trail 
went  nearly  across  wind;  the  trackers  were  leading  us 
swiftly  along  it,  when  suddenly  Tarlton  heard  a  low 
trumpet  ahead  and  to  the  right  hand.  We  at  once  doubled 
back,  left  the  horses,  and  advanced  toward  where  the 
noise  indicated  that  the  herd  was  standing. 

In  a  couple  of  minutes  we  sighted  them.  It  was  just 
noon.  There  were  six  cows,  and  two  well-grown  calves — 
these  last  being  quite  big  enough  to  shift  for  themselves  or 
to  be  awkward  antagonists  for  any  man  of  whom  they 
could  get  hold.  They  stood  in  a  clump,  each  occasionally 
shifting  its  position  or  lazily  flapping  an  ear;  and  now  and 
then  one  would  break  off  a  branch  with  its  trunk,  tuck  it 
into  its  mouth,  and  withdraw  it  stripped  of  its  leaves.  The 
wind  blew  fair,  we  were  careful  to  make  no  noise,  and  with 
ordinary  caution  we  had  nothing  to  fear  from  their  eyesight. 
The  ground  was  neither  forest  nor  bare  plain;  it  was  cov- 
ered with  long  grass  and  a  scattered  open  growth  of  small, 
scantily  leaved  trees,  chiefly  mimosas,  but  including  some 
trees  covered  with  gorgeous  orange-red  flowers.  After 
careful  scrutiny  we  advanced  behind  an  ant-hill  to  within 
sixty  yards,  and  I  stepped  forward  for  the  shot. 

Akeley  wished  two  cows  and  a  calf.  Of  the  two  best  cows 
one  had  rather  thick,  worn  tusks;  those  of  the  other  were 
smaller,  but  better  shaped.  The  latter  stood  half  facing  me, 
and  I  put  the  bullet  from  the  right  barrel  of  the  Holland 
through  her  lungs,  and  fired  the  left  barrel  for  the  heart  of  the 
other.  Tarlton,  and  then  Akeley  and  Kermit,  followed  suit. 
At  once  the  herd  started  diagonally  past  us,  but  half  halted 

26 


402 


AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 


and  faced  toward  us  when  only  twenty-five  yards  distant,  an 
unwounded  cow  beginning  to  advance  with  her  great  ears 
cocked  at  right  angles  to  her  head;  and  Tarlton  called 
"Look  out;  they  are  coming  for  us/'  At  such  a  distance  a 
charge  from  half  a  dozen  elephant  is  a  serious  thing;  I  put 
a  bullet  into  the  forehead  of  the  advancing  cow,  causing  her 

to  lurch  heavily 
forward  to  her 
knees;  and  then 
we  all  fired.  The 
heavy  rifles  were 
too  much  even  for 
such  big  beasts, 
and  round  they 
spun  and  rushed 
off.  As  they  turned 
I  dropped  the  sec- 
ond cow  I  had 
wounded  with  a 
shot  in  the  brain, 
and  the  cow  that 
had  started  to 
charge  also  fell, 
though  it  needed 
two  or  three  more 
shots  to  keep  it 
down  as  it  strug- 
gled to  rise.  The 
cow  at  which  I  had  first  fired  kept  on  with  the  rest  of  the 
herd,  but  fell  dead  before  going  a  hundred  yards.  After  we 
had  turned  the  herd  Kermit  with  his  Winchester  killed  a 
bull  calf,  necessary  to  complete  the  museum  group;  we  had 
been  unable  to  kill  it  before  because  we  were  too  busy 
stopping  the  charge  of  the  cows.  I  was  sorry  to  have  to 
shoot  the  third  cow,  but  with  elephant  starting  to  charge 
at  twenty-five  yards  the  risk  is  too  great,  and  the  need  of 
instant  action  too  imperative,  to  allow  of  any  hesitation. 


Round  the  elephant 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


TO   THE   IJASIN   GISHU 


408 


We  pitched  camp  a  hundred  yards  from  the  elephants, 
and  Akeley,  working  hke  a  demon,  and  assisted  by  Tarkon, 
had  the  skins  off  the  two  biggest  cows  and  the  calf  by  the 
time  night  fell;  I  walked  out  and  shot  an  oribi  for  supper. 
Soon  after  dark  the  hyenas  began  to  gather  at  the  carcasses 
and  to  quarrel  among  themselves  as  they  gorged.     Toward 


The  hyena,  which  was  swollen  with  elephant  meat,  had  gotten  inside  the  huge  body 
From  a  photograph  by  Carl  A  keley 

morning  a  lion  came  near  and  uttered  a  kind  of  booming, 
long-drawn  moan,  an  ominous  and  menacing  sound.  The 
hyenas  answered  with  an  extraordinary  chorus  of  yelling, 
howling,  laughing,  and  chuckling,  as  weird  a  volume  of 
noise  as  any  to  which  I  ever  listened.  At  dawn  we  stole 
down  to  the  carcasses  in  the  faint  hope  of  a  shot  at  the  lion. 
However,  he  was  not  there;  but  as  we  came  toward  one 
carcass  a  hyena  raised  its  head  seemingly  from  beside  the 
elephant's  belly,  and  I  brained  it  with  the  little  Spring- 
field.  On  walking  up  it  appeared  that  I  need  not  have 
shot  at  all.  The  hyena,  which  was  swollen  with  elephant 
meat,  had  gotten  inside  the  huge  body,  and  had  then  bit- 


404  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

ten  a  hole  through  the  abdominal  wall  of  tough  muscle  and 
thrust,  his  head  through.  The  wedge-shaped  head  had 
slipped  through  the  hole  all  right,  but  the  muscle  had  then 
contracted,  and  the  hyena  was  fairly  caught,  with  its  body 
inside  the  elephant's  belly,  and  its  head  thrust  out  through 
the  hole.  We  took  several  photos  of  the  beast  in  its  queer 
trap. 

After  breakfast  we  rode  back  to  our  camp  by  the  swamp. 
Akeley  and  Clark  were  working  hard  at  the  elephant  skins; 
but  Mrs.  Akeley,  Stevenson,  and  McCutcheon  took  lunch 
with  us  at  our  camp.  They  had  been  having  a  very  success- 
ful hunt;  Mrs.  Akeley  had  to  her  credit  a  fine  maned  lion 
and  a  bull  elephant  with  enormous  tusks.  This  was  the 
first  safari  we  had  met  while  we  were  out  in  the  field;  though 
in  Nairobi,  and  once  or  twice  at  outlying  bomas,  we  had 
met  men  about  to  start  on,  or  returning  from,  expeditions; 
and  as  we  marched  into  Meru  we  encountered  the  safari  of 
an  old  friend,  William  Lord  Smith — *' Tiger"  Smith — who, 
with  Messrs.  Brooks  and  Allen,  were  on  a  trip  which  was 
partly  a  hunting  trip  and  partly  a  scientific  trip  undertaken 
on  behalf  of  the  Cambridge  Museum. 

From  the  'Nzoi  we  made  a  couple  days'  march  to  Lake 
Sergoi,  which  we  had  passed  on  our  way  out;  a  reed-fringed 
pond,  surrounded  by  rocky  hills  which  marked  about  the 
limit  to  which  the  Boer  and  English  settlers  who  were  tak- 
ing up  the  country  had  spread.  All  along  our  route  we  en- 
countered herds  of  game;  sometimes  the  herd  would  be  of 
only  one  species;  at  other  times  we  would  come  across  a 
great  mixed  herd,  the  red  hartebeest  always  predominating; 
while  among  them  might  be  zebras,  showing  silvery  white 
or  dark  gray  in  the  distance,  topis  with  beautifully  colored 
coats,  and  even  waterbuck.  We  shot  what  hartebeests, 
topis,  and  oribis  were  needed  for  food.  All  over  the  uplands 
we  came  on  the  remains  of  a  race  of  which  even  the  memory 
has  long  since  vanished.  These  remains  consist  of  large, 
nearly  circular  walls  of  stones,  which  are  sometimes  roughly 
squared.    A  few  of  these  circular  enclosures  contain  more 


TO  THE   UASIN   GISHi;  405 

than  one  chamber.  Many  of  them,  at  least,  are  not  cattle 
kraals,  being  too  small,  and  built  round  hollows;  the  walls 
are  so  low  that  by  themselves  they  could  not  serve  for  shel- 
ter or  defence,  and  must  probably  have  been  used  as  sup- 
ports for  roofs  of  timber  or  skins.  They  were  certainly  built 
by  people  who  were  in  some  respects  more  advanced  than 
the  savage  tribes  who  now  dwell  in  the  land;  but  the  grass 
grows  thick  on  the  earth  mounds  into  which  the  ancient 
stone  walls  are  slowly  crumbling,  and  not  a  trace  of  the 
builders  remains.  Barbarians  they  doubtless  were;  but  they 
have  been  engulfed  in  the  black  oblivion  of  a  lower  barbar- 
ism, and  not  the  smallest  tradition  lingers  to  tell  of  their 
craft  or  their  cruelty,  their  industry  or  prowess,  or  to  give 
us  the  least  hint  as  to  the  race  from  which  they  sprang. 

We  had  with  us  an  ox  wagon,  with  the  regulation  span 
of  sixteen  oxen,  the  driver  being  a  young  colonial  English- 
man from  South  Africa — for  the  Dutch  and  English  Afri- 
canders are  the  best  ox-wagon  drivers  in  the  world.  On 
the  way  back  to  Sergoi  he  lost  his  oxen,  which  were  proba- 
bly run  off  by  some  savages  from  the  mountains;  so  at 
Sergoi  we  had  to  hire  another  ox  wagon,  the  South  African 
who  drove  it  being  a  Dutchman  named  Botha.  Sergoi 
was  as  yet  the  limit  of  settlement;  but  it  was  evident  that 
the  whole  Uasin  Gishu  country  would  soon  be  occupied. 
Already  many  Boers  from  South  Africa,  and  a  number  of 
English  Africanders,  had  come  in;  and  no  better  pioneers 
exist  to-day  than  these  South  Africans,  both  Dutch  and 
English.  Both  are'  so  good  that  I  earnestly  hope  they 
will  become  indissolubly  welded  into  one  people;  and  the 
Dutch  Boer  has  the  supreme  merit  of  preferring  the  country 
to  the  town  and  of  bringing  his  wife  and  children— plenty 
of  children — ^with  him  to  settle  on  the  land.  The  home- 
maker  is  the  only  type  of  settler  of  permanent  value;  and 
the  cool,  healthy,  fertile  Uasin  Gishu  region  is  an  ideal 
land  for  the  right  kind  of  pioneer  home-maker,  whether  he 
hopes  to  make  his  living  by  raising  stock  or  by  growing 
crops. 


40() 


.U-RICAN    GAME   TRAILS 


At  Sergoi  Lake  there  is  a  store  kept  by  Mr.  Kirke,  a 
South  African  of  Scotch  blood.  With  a  kind  courtesy  which 
I  cannot  too  highly  appreciate  he,  with  the  equally  cordial 
help  of  another  settler,  Mr.  Skally — also  a  South  African, 
but  of  Irish  birth — and  of  the  district  commissioner,  Mr. 
Corbett,  had  arranged  for  a  party  of  Nandi  warriors  to  come 
over  and  show  me  how  they  hunted  the  lion.     Two  Dutch 


jNIr.  Roosevelt  and  some  of  the  Nandi  warriors 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


farmers,  Boers,  from  the  neighborhood,  had  also  come; 
they  were  Messrs.  Mouton  and  Jordaan,  fine  fellows  both, 
the  former  having  served  with  De  Wet  during  the  war. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Corbett — who  were  hospitality  itself — had 
also  come  to  see  the  sport;  and  so  had  Captain  Chapman, 
an  English  army  officer  who  was  taking  a  rest  after  several 
years'  service  in  Northern  Nigeria. 

The  Nandi  are  a  warlike  pastoral  tribe,  close   kin  to 
the  Masai  in  blood  and  tongue,  in  weapons  and  in  manner 


TO   THE    UASIN   (ilSHU  407 

of  life.  They  have  long  been  accustomed  to  kill  with  the 
spear  lions  which  become  man-eaters  or  which  molest  their 
cattle  overmuch;  and  the  peace  which  British  rule  has  im- 
posed upon  them — a  peace  so  welcome  to  the  weaker,  so 
irksome  to  the  predatory,  tribes — has  left  lion  killing  one 
of  the  few  pursuits  in  which  glory  can  be  won  by  a  young 
warrior.  When  it  was  told  them  that  if  they  wished  they 
could  come  to  hunt  lions  at  Sergoi  eight  hundred  warriors 
volunteered,  and  much  heart-burning  was  caused  in  choos- 
ing the  sixty  or  seventy  who  were  allowed  the  privilege. 
They  stipulated,  however,  that  they  should  not  be  used 
merely  as  beaters,  but  should  kill  the  lion  themselves,  and 
refused  to  come  unless  with  this  understanding. 

The  day  before  we  reached  Sergoi  they  had  gone  out, 
and  had  killed  a  lion  and  lioness;  the  beasts  were  put  up 
from  a  small  covert  and  despatched  with  the  heavy  throw- 
ing spears  on  the  instant,  before  they  offered,  or  indeed 
had  the  chance  to  offer,  any  resistance.  The  day  after  our 
arrival  there  was  mist  and  cold  rain,  and  we  found  no 
lions.    Next  day,  November  20th,  we  were  successful. 

We  started  immediately  after  breakfast.  Kirke,  Skally, 
Mouton,  Jordaan,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Corbett,  Captain  Chap- 
man, and  our  party,  were  on  horseback;  of  course  we  car- 
ried our  rifles,  but  our  duty  was  merely  to  round  up  the 
lion  and  hold  him,  if  he  went  off  so  far  in  advance  that  even 
the  Nandi  runners  could  not  overtake  him.  We  intended 
to  beat  the  country  toward  some  shallow,  swampy  valleys 
twelve  miles  distant. 

In  an  hour  we  overtook  the  Nandi  warriors,  who  were 
advancing  across  the  rolling,  grassy  plains  in  a  long  line, 
with  intervals  of  six  or  eight  yards  between  the  men.  They 
were  splendid  savages,  stark  naked,  lithe  as  panthers,  the 
muscles  rippling  under  their  smooth  dark  skins;  all  their 
lives  they  had  lived  on  nothing  but  animal  food,  milk, 
blood,  and  flesh,  and  they  were  fit  for  any  fatigue  or  danger. 
Their  faces  were  proud,  cruel,  fearless;  as  they  ran  they 
moved  with  long  springy  strides.     Their  head-dresses  were 


408  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

fantastic;  they  carried  ox-hide  shields  painted  with  strange 
devices;  and  each  bore  in  his  right  hand  the  formidable 
war  spear,  used  both  for  stabbing  and  for  throwing  at  close 
quarters.  The  narrow  spear  heads  of  soft  iron  were  bur- 
nished till  they  shone  like  silver;  they  were  four  feet  long, 
and  the  point  and  edges  were  razor  sharp.  The  wooden 
haft  appeared  for  but  a  few  inches;  the  long  butt  was  also 
of  iron,  ending  in  a  spike,  so  that  the  spear  looked  almost 
solid  metal.  Yet  each  sinewy  warrior  carried  his  heavy 
weapon  as  if  it  were  a  toy,  twirling  it  till  it  glinted  in  the 
sun-rays.  Herds  of  game,  red  hartebeests  and  striped 
zebra  and  wild  swine,  ifled  right  and  left  before  the  advance 
of  the  line. 

It  was  noon  before  we  reached  a  wide,  shallow  valley, 
with  beds  of  rushes  here  and  there  in  the  middle,  and  on 
either  side  high  grass  and  dwarfed  and  scattered  thorn- 
trees.  Down  this  we  beat  for  a  couple  of  miles.  Then, 
suddenly,  a  maned  lion  rose  a  quarter  of  a  mile  ahead  of  the 
line  and  galloped  off  through  the  high  grass  to  the  right; 
and  all  of  us  on  horseback  tore  after  him. 

He  was  a  magnificent  beast,  with  a  black  and  tawny 
mane;  in  his  prime,  teeth  and  claws  perfect,  with  mighty 
thews,  and  savage  heart.  He  was  lying  near  a  hartebeest 
on  which  he  had  been  feasting;  his  life  had  been  one  un- 
broken career  of  rapine  and  violence;  and  now  the  maned 
master  of  the  wilderness,  the  terror  that  stalked  by  night, 
the  grim  lord  of  slaughter,  was  to  meet  his  doom  at  the 
hands  of  the  only  foes  who  dared  molest  him. 

It  was  a  mile  before  we  brought  him  to  bay.  Then 
the  Dutch  farmer,  Mouton,  who  had  not  even  a  rifle,  but 
who  rode  foremost,  was  almost  on  him;  he  halted  and 
turned  under  a  low  thorn-tree,  and  we  galloped  past  him  to 
the  opposite  side,  to  hold  him  until  the  spearmen  could 
come.  It  was  a  sore  temptation  to  shoot  him;  but  of  course 
we  could  not  break  faith  with  our  Nandi  friends.  We 
were  only  some  sixty  yards  from  him,  and  we  watched  him 
with  our  rifles  ready,  lest  he  should  charge  either  us,  or 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  409 

the  first  two  or  three  spearmen,  before  their  companions 
arrived. 

One  by  one  the  spearmen  came  up,  at  a  run,  and  grad- 
ually began  to  form  a  ring  round  him.  Each,  when  he  came 
near  enough,  crouched  behind  his  shield,  his  spear  in  his 
right  hand,  his  fierce,  eager  face  peering  over  the  shield 
rim.  As  man  followed  man,  the  lion  rose  to  his  feet.  His 
mane  bristled,  his  tail  lashed,  he  held  his  head  low,  the  upper 
lip  now  drooping  over  the  jaws,  now  drawn  up  so  as  to 
show  the  gleam  of  the  long  fangs.  He  faced  first  one  way 
and  then  another,  and  never  ceased  to  utter  his  murderous 
grunting  roars.  It  was  a  wild  sight;  the  ring  of  spearmen, 
intent,  silent,  bent  on  blood,  and  in  the  centre  the  great 
man-killing  beast,  his  thunderous  wrath  growing  ever  more 
dangerous. 

At  last  the  tense  ring  was  complete,  and  the  spearmen 
rose  and  closed  in.  The  lion  looked  quickly  from  side 
to  side,  saw  where  the  line  was  thinnest,  and  charged  at 
his  topmost  speed.  The  crowded  moment  began.  With 
shields  held  steady,  and  quivering  spsars  poised,  the  men 
in  front  braced  themselves  for  the  rush  and  the  shock;  and 
from  either  hand  the  warriors  sprang  forward  to  take  their 
foe  in  flank.  Bounding  ahead  of  his  fellows,  the  leader 
reached  throwing  distance;  the  long  spear  flickered  and 
plunged;  as  the  lion  felt  the  wound  he  half  turned,  and 
then  flung  himself  on  the  man  in  front.  The  warrior  threw 
his  spear;  it  drove  deep  into  the  life,  for  entering  at  one 
shoulder  it  came  out  of  the  opposite  flank,  near  the  thigh,  a 
yard  of  steel  through  the  great  body.  Rearing,  the  lion 
struck  the  man,  bearing  down  the  shield,  his  back  arched; 
and  for  a  moment  he  slaked  his  fury  with  fang  and  talon. 
But  on  the  instant  I  saw  another  spear  driven  clear  through 
his  body  from  side  to  side;  and  as  the  lion  turned  again 
the  bright  spear  blades  darting  toward  him  were  flashes 
of  white  flame.  The  end  had  come.  He  seized  another 
man,  who  stabbed  him  and  wrenched  loose.  As  he  fell  he 
gripped  a    spear-head   in  his  jaws  with  such  tremendous 


410  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

force  that  he  bent  it  double.  Then  the  warriors  were 
round  and  over  him,  stabbing  and  shouting,  wild  with 
furious  exultation. 

From  the  moment  when  he  charged  until  his  death  I 
doubt  whether  ten  seconds  had  elapsed,  perhaps  less;  but 
what  a  ten  seconds!  The  first  half-dozen  spears  had  done 
the  work.  Three  of  the  spear  blades  had  gone  clear  through 
the  body,  the  points  projecting  several  inches;  and  these, 
and  one  or  two  others,  including  the  one  he  had  seized  in 
his  jaws,  had  been  twisted  out  of  shape  in  the  terrible  death 
struggle. 

We  at  once  attended  to  the  two  wounded  men.  Treating 
their  wounds  with  antiseptic  was  painful,  and  so,  while  the 
operation  was  in  progress,  I  told  them,  through  Kirke,  that 
I  would  give  each  a  heifer.  A  Nandi  prizes  his  cattle  rather 
more  than  his  wives;  and  each  sufferer  smiled  broadly  at 
the  news,  and  forgot  all  about  the  pain  of  his  wounds. 

Then  the  warriors,  raising  their  shields  above  their 
heads,  and  chanting  the  deep-toned  victory  song,  marched 
with  a  slow,  dancing  step  around  the  dead  body  of  the  lion; 
and  this  savage  dance  of  triumph  ended  a  scene  of  as  fierce 
interest  and  excitement  as  I  ever  hope  to  see. 

The  Nandi  marched  back  by  themselves,  carrying  the 
two  wounded  men  on  their  shields.  We  rode  to  camp  by 
a  roundabout  way,  on  the  chance  that  we  might  see  another 
lion.  The  afternoon  waned  and  we  cast  long  shadows 
before  us  as  we  rode  across  the  vast  lonely  plain.  The 
game  stared  at  us  as  we  passed;  a  cold  wind  blew  in  our 
faces,  and  the  tall  grass  waved  ceaselessly;  the  sun  set  be- 
hind a  sullen  cloud  bank;  and  then,  just  at  nightfall,  the 
tents  glimmered  white  through  the  dusk. 

Tarlton's  partner,  Newland — also  an  Australian,  and 
as  fine  a  fellow  as  Tarlton  himself — once  had  a  rather 
eerie  adventure  with  a  man-eating  lion.  He  was  camped 
near  Kilimakiu,  and  after  nightfall  the  alarm  was  raised 
that  a  lion  was  near  by.  He  came  out  of  his  tent,  more 
wood  was  thrown  on  the  fire,  and  he  heard  footsteps  re- 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHIJ  413 

treating,  but  could  not  make  out  whether  they  were  those 
of  a  lion  or  a  hyena.  Going  back  to  his  tent  he  lay  down  on 
his  bed  with  his  face  turned  toward  the  tent  wall.  Just  as 
he  was  falling  to  sleep  the  canvas  was  pushed  almost  into 
his  face  by  the  head  of  some  creature  outside;  immediately 
afterward  he  heard  the  sound  of  a  heavy  animal  galloping, 
and  then  the  scream  of  one  of  his  porters  whom  the  lion 
had  seized  and  was  dragging  off  into  the  darkness.     Rush- 


The  Nandi  dance  around  the  speared  lion 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

ing  out  with  his  rifle  he  fired  toward  the  sounds,  shooting 
high;  the  lion  let  go  his  hold  and  made  off,  and  the  man 
•ultimately  recovered. 

It  has  been  said  that  lions  are  monogamous  and  that 
they  mate  for  life.  If  this  were  so  they  would  almost 
always  be  found  in  pairs,  a  lion  and  a  lioness.  They  are 
sometimes  so  found;  but  it  is  much  more  common  to  come 
across  a  lioness  and  her  cubs,  an  old  lion  with  several  lion- 
esses and  their  young  (for  they  are  often  polygamous), 
a  single  lion  or  lioness,  or  a  couple  of  lions  or  lionesses,  or 
a  small  troop,  either  all  lions  or  all  lionesses,  or  of  mixed 
sexes.  These  facts  are  not  compatible  with  the  romantic 
theory  in  question. 


414  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

We  tried  to  get  the  Nandi  to  stay  with  us  for  a  few  days 
and  beat  for  hons;  but  this  they  refused  to  do,  unless  they 
were  also  to  kill  them;  and  I  did  not  care  to  assist  as  a 
mere  spectator  at  any  more  lion  hunts,  no  matter  how  ex- 
citing— though  to  do  so  once  was  well  worth  while.  So  we 
moved  on  by  ourselves,  camping  in  likely  places.  In  the 
swamps,  living  among  the  reeds,  were  big  handsome  cuck- 
oos, which  ate  mice.  Our  first  camp  was  by  a  stream 
bordered  by  trees  like  clove-trees;  at  evening  multitudes 
of  yellow-billed  pigeons  flew  up  its  course.  They  were 
feeding  on  olives,  and  were  good  for  the  table;  and  so  were 
the  yellow-billed  mallards,  which  were  found  in  the  occa- 
sional pools.  Everything  we  shot  at  this  time  went  into 
the  pot — except  a  hyena.  The  stomachs  of  the  reedbuck 
and  oribi  contained  nothing  but  grass;  but  the  stomachs 
of  the  duikers  were  filled  with  berries  from  a  plant  which 
looked  like  the  deadly  nightshade.  On  the  burned  ground, 
by  the  way,  the  oribi,  which  were  very  plentiful,  behaved 
precisely  like  tommies,  except  that  they  did  not  go  in  as 
large  troops;  they  made  no  effort  to  hide  as  they  do  in 
thick  grass;  and  as  duikers,  steinbucks,  and  reedbucks 
always  do.  We  saw,  but  could  not  get  a  shot  at,  one  topi 
with  a  white  or  blazed  face,  like  a  South  African  blesbok. 
While  beating  one  swamp  a  lion  appeared  for  an  instant 
at  its  edge,  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  off.  I  got  a  snap  shot, 
and  ought  to  have  hit  him,  but  didn't.  We  tried  our  best 
to  get  him  out  of  the  swamp,  finally  burning  all  of  it  that 
was  not  too  wet;   but  we  never  saw  him  again. 

We  recrossed  the  high  hill  country,  through  mists  and 
driving  rains,  and  were  back  at  Londiani  on  the  last  day 
of  November.  Here,  with  genuine  regret,  we  said  good- 
by  to  our  safari;  for  we  were  about  to  leave  East  Africa, 
and  could  only  take  a  few  of  our  personal  attendants  with 
us  into  Uganda  and  the  Nile  Valley.  I  was  really  sorry  to 
see  the  last  of  the  big,  strong,  good-natured  porters.  They 
had  been  with  us  over  seven  months,  and  had  always  be- 
haved well — though  this,  of  course,  was  mainly  owing  to 


TO   THE    UASIN    GISHU 


4ir> 


Cuninghame's  and  Tarlton's  management.  We  had  not 
lost  a  single  man  by  death.  One  had  been  tossed  by  a 
rhino,  one  clawed  by  a  leopard,  and  several  had  been  sent 
to  hospital  for  dysentery,  small-pox,  or  fever;  but  none  had 
died.  While  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  trip  we  had  run  into  a 
narrow  belt  of  the  dreaded  tsetse  fly,  whose  bite  is  fatal  to 


Mr.  Roosevelt  photographing  the  speared  lion 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosei'elt 


domestic  animals.  Five  of  our  horses  were  bitten,  and 
four  of  them  died,  two  not  until  we  were  on  the  Uasin  Gishu; 
the  fifth,  my  zebra-shaped  brown,  although  very  sick,  ulti- 
mately recovered,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  experts.  Only 
three  of  our  horses  lasted  in  such  shape  that  we  could  ride 
them  in  to  Londiani;  one  of  them  being  Tranquillity,  and 
another  Kermit's  white  pony,  Huan  Daw,  who  was  always 
dancing  and  curvetting,  and  whom  in  consequence  the 
saises  had  christened  "merodadi,"  the  dandy. 

The  first  ten  days  of  December  I  spent  at  Njoro,  on  the 
edge  of  the  Mau  escarpment,  with  Lord  Delamere.  It  is  a 
beautiful  farming  country;    and  Lord  Delamere  is  a  practi- 


416 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


cal  and  successful  farmer,  and  the  most  useful  settler,  from 
the  stand-point  of  the  all-round  interests  of  the  country, 
in  British  East  Africa.  Incidentally,  the  home  ranch  was 
most  attractive — especially  the  library,  the  room  containing 
Lady  Delamere's  books.  Delamere  had  been  himself  a 
noted   big-game  hunter,  his  bag  including  fifty-two  lions; 


As  he  fell  he  gripped  a  spear-head  in  his  jaws  with  such  tremendous  force 
that  he  bent  it  double 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

but  instead  of  continuing  to  be  a  mere  sportsman,  he  turned 
his  attention  to  stock-raising  and  wheat-growing,  and  be- 
came a  leader  in  the  work  of  taming  the  wilderness,  of 
■conquering  for  civilization  the  world's  waste  spaces.'  No 
career  can  be  better  worth  following. 

During  his  hunting  years  Delamere  had  met  with  many 
strange  adventures.  One  of  the  lions  he  shot  mauled  him, 
breaking  his  leg,  and  also  mauling  his  two  Somali  gun- 
bearers.  The  lion  then  crawled  off  into  some  bushes  fifty 
yards  away,  and  camp  was  pitched  where  the  wounded 


lO     IHK    lASIX    (;ISH(T 


U' 


men  were  lying.  Soon  after  nightfall  the  hyenas  assembled 
in  numbers  and  attacked,  killed,  and  ate  the  mortally 
wounded  lion,  the  noise  made  by  the  combatants  being 
ear-rending.  On  another  occasion  he  had  heard  a  leopard 
attack  some  baboons  in  the  rocks,  a  tremendous  row  fol- 
lowing as  the  big  dog 
baboons  hastened  to 
the  assistance  of  the 
one  who  had  been 
seized  and  drove  off  the 
leopard.  That  evening 
a  leopard,  evidently  the 
same  one,  very  thin  and 
hungry,  came  into  camp 
and  was  shot ;  it  was 
frightfully  bitten,  the 
injuries  being  such  as 
only  baboons  inflict, 
and  would  unquestion- 
ably have  died  of  its 
wounds.  The  leopard 
wherever  possible  takes 
his  kill  up  a  tree, 
showing  extraordinary 
strength  in  the  perform- 
ance of  this  feat.  It  is 
undoubtedly  due  to  fear 
of  interference  from 
hyenas.  The  'Ndorobo 
said  that  no  single 
hyena  would  meddle 
with  a  leopard,  but  that  three  or  four  would  without 
hesitation  rob  it  of  its  prey.  Some  years  before  this 
time,  while  hunting  north  of  Kenia,  Lord  Delamere  had 
met  a  Dr.  Kolb,  who  was  killed  by  a  rhino  immediately 
afterward.  Dr.  Kolb  was  fond  of  rhinoceros  liver,  and 
killed   scores   of  the  animals   for  food;    but  finallv  a  cow, 

27  • 


The  spears  that  did  the  trick 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


418  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

with  a  half-grown  calf,  which  he  had  wounded  charged  him 
and  thrust  her  horn  right  through  the  middle  of  his  body. 

We  spent  several  days  vainly  hunting  bongo  in  the  dense 
mountain  forests,  with  half  a  dozen  'Ndorobo.  These  were 
true  'Ndorobo,  who  never  cultivate  the  ground,  living  in 
the  deep  forests  on  wild  honey  and  game.  It  has  been 
said  that  they  hunt  but  little,  and  only  elephant  and  rhino; 
but  this  is  not  correct  as  regards  the  'Ndorobo  in  question. 
They  were  all  clad  in  short  cloaks  of  the  skin  of  the  tree 
hyrax;  hyrax,  monkey,  bongo,  and  forest  hog,  the  only  game 
of  the  dense,  cool,  wet  forest,  were  all  habitually  killed  by 
them.  They  also  occasionally  killed  rhino  and  buffalo,  find- 
ing the  former,  because  it  must  occasionally  be  attacked  in 
the  open,  the  more  dangerous  of  the  two;  twice  Delamere 
had  come  across  small  communities  of  'Ndorobo  literally 
starving  because  the  strong  man,  the  chief  hunter,  the 
breadwinner,  had  been  killed  by  a  rhino  which  he  had 
attacked.  The  headman  of  those  with  us,  who  was  named 
Mel-el-lek,  had  himself  been  fearfully  injured  by  a  wounded 
buffalo;  and  the  father  of  another  one  who  was  with  us 
had  been  killed  by  baboons  which  had  rallied  to  the  aid  of 
one  which  he  was  trying  to  kill  with  his  knobkerry.  Usually 
they  did  not  venture  to  meddle  with  the  lions  which  they 
found  on  the  edge  of  the  forest,  or  with  the  leopards  which 
occasionally  dwelt  in  the  deep  woods;  but  once  Mel-el-lek 
killed  a  leopard  with  a  poisoned  arrow  from  a  tree,  and 
once  a  whole  party  of  them  attacked  and  killed  with  their 
poisoned  arrows  a  lion  which  had  slain  a  cow  buffalo  near 
the  forest.  On  another  occasion  a  lion  in  its  turn  killed 
two  of  their  hunters.  In  fact  they  were  living  just  as 
palaeolithic  man  lived  in  Europe,  ages  ago. 

Their  arms  were  bows  and  arrows,  the  arrows  being 
carried  in  skin  quivers,  and  the  bows,  which  were  strung 
with  zebra  gut,  being  swathed  in  strips  of  hide.  When  rest- 
ing they  often  stood  on  one  leg,  like  storks.  Their  eyesight 
was  marvellous,  and  they  were  extremely  skilful  alike  in 
tracking  and  in  seeing  game.     They  threaded  their  way 


TO   THE    LASIN    GISHU  419 

through  the  forest  noiselessly  and  at  speed,  and  were  extraor- 
dinary climbers.  They  were  continually  climbing  trees  to 
get  at  the  hyrax,  and  once  when  a  big  black-and-white 
Colobus  monkey  which  I  had  shot  lodged  in  the  top  of 
a  giant  cedar  one  of  them  ascended  and  brought  it  down 
with  matter-of-course  indifference.  He  cut  down  a  sapling, 
twenty-five  feet  long,  with  the  stub  of  a  stout  branch  left 
on  as  a  hook,  and  for  a  rope  used  a  section  of  vine  which 
he  broke  and  twisted  into  flexibility.  Then,  festooned  with 
all  his  belongings,  he  made  the  ascent.  There  was  a  tall 
olive,  sixty  or  eighty  feet  high,  close  to  the  cedar,  and  up 
this  he  went.  From  its  topmost  branches,  where  only  a 
monkey  or  a  'Ndorobo  could  have  felt  at  home,  he  reached 
his  sapling  over  to  the  lowest  limb  of  the  giant  cedar,  and 
hooked  it  on;  and  then  crawled  across  on  this  dizzy  bridge. 
Up  he  went,  got  the  monkey,  recrossed  the  bridge,  and 
climbed  down  again,  quite  unconcerned. 

The  big  black-and-white  monkeys  ate  nothing  but 
leaves,  and  usually  trusted  for  safety  to  ascending  into 
the  very  tops  of  the  tallest  cedars.  Occasionally  they  would 
come  in  a  flying  leap  down  to  the  ground,  or  to  a  neigh- 
boring tree;  when  on  the  ground  they  merely  dashed 
toward  another  tree,  being  less  agile  than  the  ordinary 
monkeys,  whether  in  the  tree  tops  or  on  solid  earth.  They 
are  strikingly  handsome  and  conspicuous  creatures.  Their 
bold  coloration  has  been  spoken  of  as  "protective";  but  it 
is  protective  only  to  town-bred  eyes.  A  non-expert  finds 
any  object,  of  no  matter  what  color,  difficult  to  make  out 
when  hidden  among  the  branches  at  the  top  of  a  tall  tree; 
but  the  black-and-white  coloration  of  this  monkey  has  not 
the  slightest  protective  value  of  any  kind.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  calculated  at  once  to  attract  the  eye.  The 
'Ndorobo  were  a  unit  in  saying  that  these  monkeys  were 
much  more  easy  to  see  than  their  less  brightly  colored 
kinsfolk  who  dwell  in  the  same  forests;  and  this  was  my 
own  experience. 

When   camped    in   these   high   forests   the   woods   after 


420  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

nightfall  were  vocal  with  the  croaking  and  wailing  of  the 
tree  hyraxes.  They  are  squat,  woolly,  funny  things,  and  to 
my  great  amusement  I  found  that  most  of  the  settlers 
called  them  "  Teddy  bears."  They  are  purely  arboreal 
and  nocturnal  creatures,  living  in  hollows  high  up  in  the 
big  trees,  by  preference  in  the  cedars.  At  night  they  are 
very  noisy,  the  call  consisting  of  an  opening  series  of  ba- 
trachian-like  croaks,  followed  by  a  succession  of  quavering 
wails — eerie  sounds  enough,  as  they  come  out  of  the  black 
stillness  of  the  midnight.  They  are  preyed  on  now  and 
then  by  big  owls  and  by  leopards,  and  the  white-tailed 
mongoose  is  their  especial  foe,  following  them  everywhere 
among  the  tree  tops.  This  mongoose  is  both  terrestrial  and 
arboreal  in  habits,  and  is  hated  by  the  'Ndorobo  because  it 
robs  their  honey  buckets. 

The  bongo  and  the  giant  hog  were  the  big  game  of  these 
deep  forests,  where  a  tangle  of  undergrowth  filled  the  spaces 
between  the  trunks  of  the  cedar,  the  olive,  and  the  yew  or 
yellow-wood,  while  where  the  bamboos  grew  they  usually 
choked  out  all  other  plants.  Delamere  had  killed  several 
giant  hogs  with  his  half-breed  hounds;  but  on  this  occasion 
the  hounds  would  not  follow  them.  On  three  days  we 
came  across  bongo;  once  a  solitary  bull,  on  both  the  other 
occasions  herds.  We  never  saw  them,  although  we  heard 
the  solitary  bull  crash  off  through  the  bamboos;  for  they 
are  very  wary  and  elusive,  being  incessantly  followed  by  the 
'Ndorobo.  They  are  as  large  as  native  bullocks,  with  hand- 
somely striped  skins,  and  both  sexes  carry  horns.  On  each 
of  the  three  days  we  followed  them  all  day  long,  and  it 
was  interesting  to  trace  so  much  as  we  could  of  their  habits. 
Their  trails  are  deeply  beaten,  and  converge  toward  the 
watercourses,  which  run  between  the  steep,  forest-clad 
spurs'  of  the  mountains.  They  do  not  graze,  but  browse, 
cropping  the  leaves,  flowers,  and  twigs  of  various  shrubs, 
and  eating  thistles;  they  are  said  to  eat  bark,  but  this  our 
'Ndorobo  denied.  They  are  also  said  to  be  nocturnal,  feed- 
ing at  night,  and  lying  up  in  the  daytime;    but  this  was 


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Sailinye,  the  Dorobo,  who  was  with  Kermit  Roosevelt  when  he  shot  llie  bongo, 

holding  up  the  bongo  head 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


42e  AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 

certainly  not  the  case  with  those  we  came  across.  Both  of 
the  herds,  which  we  followed  patiently  and  cautiously  for 
hours  without  alarming  them,  were  feeding  as  they  moved 
slowly  along.  One  herd  lay  down  for  a  few  hours  at  noon; 
the  other  kept  feeding  until  mid-afternoon,  when  we  alarmed 
it;  and  the  animals  then  went  straight  up  the  mountain 
over  the  rimrock.  It  was  cold  rainy  weather,  and  the  dark 
of  the  moon,  which  may  perhaps  have  had  som.ething  to 
do  with  the  bongo  being  on  the  move  and  feeding  during 
the  day;  but  the  'Ndorobo  said  that  they  never  fed  at  night 
— I  of  course  know  nothing  about  this  personally.  Leop- 
ards catch  the  young  bongo  and  giant  hog,  but  dare  not 
meddle  with  those  that  are  full-grown.  The  forest  which 
they  frequent  is  so  dense,  so  wellnigh  impenetrable,  that 
half  the  time  no  man  can  follow  their  trails  save  by  bend- 
ing and  crawling,  and  cannot  make  out  an  object  twenty 
yards  ahead.  It  is  extraordinary  to  see  the  places  through 
which  the  bongo  pass,  and  which  are  their  chosen  haunts. 
While  Lord  Delamere  and  I  were  hunting  in  vain  Kermit 
was  more  fortunate.  He  was  the  guest  of  Barclay  Cole, 
Delamere's  brother-in-law.  They  took  eight  porters  and 
went  into  the  forest  accompanied  by  four  'Ndorobo.  They 
marched  straight  up  to  the  bamboo  and  yellow-wood  for- 
est near  the  top  of  the  Mau  escarpment.  They  spent  five 
days  hunting.  The  procedure  was  simply  to  find  the  trail 
of  a  herd,  to  follow  it  through  the  tangled  woods  as  rapidly 
and  noiselessly  as  possible  until  it  was  overtaken,  and  then 
to  try  to  get  a  shot  at  the  first  patch  of  reddish  hide  of 
which  they  got  a  glimpse — for  they  never  saw  more  than 
such  a  patch,  and  then  only  for  a  moment.  The  first 
day  Kermit,  firing  at  such  a  patch,  knocked  over  the  ani- 
mal; but  it  rose  and  the  tracks  were  so  confused  that  even 
the  keen  eyes  of  the  wild  men  could  not  pick  out  the  right 
one.  "Next  day  they  again  got  into  a  herd;  this  time  Ker- 
mit was  the  first  to  see  the  game — all  that  was  visible 
being  a  patch  of  reddish,  the  size  of  a  man's  two  hands, 
with  a  white  stripe  across  it.     Firing  he  killed  the  animal; 


TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  i'-Zii 

but  it  proved  to  be  only  half  grown.  Even  the  'Ndorobo 
now  thought  it  useless  to  follow  the  herd;  but  Kermit 
took  one  of  them  and  started  in  pursuit.  After  a  couple 
of  hours'  trailing  the  herd  was  again  overtaken,  and  again 
Kermit  got  a  glimpse  of  the  animals.  He  hit  two;  and 
selecting  the  trail  with  most  blood  they  followed  it  for  three 
or  four  miles,  until  Kermit  overtook  and  finished  off  the 
wounded  bongo,  a  fine  cow. 

Kermit  always  found  them  lying  up  during  the  middle 
of  the  day  and  feeding  in  the  morning  and  afternoon;  other- 
wise his  observations  of  their  habits  coincided  with  mine. 

The  next  ten  days  Kermit  spent  in  a  trip  to  the  coast, 
near  Mombasa,  for  sable — the  most  beautiful  antelope  next 
to  the  koodoo.  The  cows  and  bulls  are  red,  the  very  old 
bulls  (of  the  typical  form)  jet  black,  all  with  white  bellies; 
like  the  roan,  both  sexes  carry  scimitar-shaped  horns,  but 
longer  than  the  roans.  He  was  alone  with  his  two  gun- 
bearers,  and  some  Swahili  porters;  he  acted  as  headman 
himself.  They  marched  from  Mombasa,,  being  ferried 
across  the  harbor  of  Kilindini  in  a  dhow,  and  then  going 
some  fifteen  miles  south.  Next  day  they  marched  about  ten 
miles  to  a  Nyika  village,  where  they  arrived  just  in  the  mid- 
dle of  a  funeral  dance  which  was  being  held  in  honor  of  a 
chief's  son  who  had  died.  Kermit  was  much  amused  to  find 
that  this  death  dance  had  more  life  and  go  to  it  than  any 
dance  he  had  yet  seen,  and  the  music — the  dirge  music — had 
such  swing  and  vivacity  that  it  almost  reminded  him  of  a 
comic  opera.  The  dancers  wore  tied  round  their  legs  queer 
little  wicker-work  baskets,  with  beans  inside,  which  rattled  in 
the  rhythm  of  their  dancing.  Camp  was  pitched  under  a 
huge  baobab-tree,  in  sight  of  the  Indian  Ocean;  but  in  the 
middle  of  the  night  the  ants  swarmed  in  and  drove  every- 
body out;  and  next  day,  while  Kermit  was  hunting,  camp 
was  shifted  on  about  an  hour's  march  to  a  little  grove  of 
trees  by  a.  brook.  It  was  a  well- watered  country,  very  hilly, 
with  palm-bordered  streams  in  each  valley.  These  wild 
palms  bore  ivory  nuts,  the  fruit  tasting  something  like  an 


TO   THE   UASIN   GISHU  425 

apple.  Each  village  had  a  grove  of  cocoanut  palms,  and 
Kermit  found  the  cool  cocoanut  milk  delicious  after  the 
return  from  a  long  day's  hunting. 

Each  morning  he  was  off  before  daylight,  and  rarely 
returned  until  after  nightfall;  and  tired  though  he  was  he 
enjoyed  to  the  full  the  walks  campward  in  the  bright  moon- 
light among  the  palm  groves  beside  the  rushing  streams, 
while  the  cicadas  cried  like  katydids  at  home.  The  grass 
was  long.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  almost  every 
day  there  were  drenching  thunder-storms,  and  the  dews 
were  exceedingly  heavy,  so  that  Kermit  was  wet  almost  all 
the  time,  although  he  kept  in  first-rate  health.  There  were 
not  many  sable  and  they  were  shy.  About  nine  or  ten  o'clock 
they  would  stop  feeding,  and  leave  their  pasture  grounds  of 
long  grass,  taking  refuge  in  some  grove  of  trees  and  thick 
bushes,  not  coming  out  again  until  nearly  five  o'clock. 

On  the  second  day's  hunting  Juma  spied  a  little  band 
of  sable  just  entering  a  grove.  A  long  and  careful  stalk 
brought  the  hunters  to  the  grove,  but  after  reaching  it  they 
at  first  saw  nothing  of  the  game.  Then  Kermit  caught  a 
glimpse  of  a  head,  fired,  and  brought  down  the  beast  in 
its  tracks.  It  proved  to  be  a  bull,  just  changing  from  the 
red  to  the  black  coat;  the  horns  were  fair — in  this  northern 
form  they  never  reach  the  length  of  those  borne  by  the 
sable  bulls  of  South  Africa.  He  also  killed  a  cow,  not  fully 
grown.  He  therefore  still  needed  a  full-grown  cow,  which 
he  obtained  three  days  later;  this  animal  when  wounded 
was  very  savage,  and  tried  to  charge. 

We  now  went  to  Nairobi,  where  Cuninghame,  Tarlton, 
and  the  three  naturalists  were  already  preparing  for  the 
Uganda  trip  and  shipping  the  stuff  hitherto  collected. 
Working  like  beavers  we  got  everything  ready — including 
additions  to  the  Pigskin  Library,  which  included,  among 
others,  Cervantes,  Goethe's  "Faust,"  Moliere,  Pascal, 
Montaigne,  St.  Simon,  Darwin's  "Voyage  of  the  Beagle," 
and  Huxley's  "Essays" — and  on  December  i8th  started  for 
Lake  Victoria  Nyanza. 


CHAPTER   XIII 


UGANDA,  AND    THE    GREAT   NYANZA    LAKES 

When  we  left  Nairobi  it  was  with  real  regret  that  we 
said  good-by  to  the  many  friends  who  had  been  so  kind 
to  us;  officials,  private  citizens,  almost  every  one  we  had 
met — including  Sir  Percy  Girouard,  the  new  governor.  At 
Kijabe  the  men  and  women  from  the  American  Mission — 

and  the  chil- 
dren too — were 
down  at  the 
station  to  wish 
us  good  luck; 
and  at  Nakuru 
the  settlers 
from  the  neigh- 
borhood gath- 
ered on  the 
platform  to 
give  us  a  fare- 
wel  1  cheer. 
The  following 
morning  we 
reached  Kisu- 
mu  on  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza.  It  is  in  the  Kavirondo 
country,  where  the  natives,  both  men  and  women,  as  a 
rule  go  absolutely  naked,  although  they  are  peaceable  and 
industrious.  In  the  native  market  they  had  brought  in 
baskets,  iron  spade  heads,  and  food,  to  sell  to  the  native 
and  Indian  traders  who  had  their  booths  round  about;  the 
meat  riiarket,  under  the  trees,  was  especially  interesting. 

At  noon  we  embarked  in  a  smart  little  steamer,  to  cross 
the  lake.    Twenty-four  hours  later  we  landed  at  Entebbe, 

426 


Kavirondos  returning  from  market 
From  a  photograph  hy  Kcrmil  Roosevelt 


UGANDA.    Ax\D    IHK    NYAXZA    LAKES 


ir, 


Kavirondos  going  down  to  fill  their  water-jars 
From  a  photograph  by  Kcrmil  Roosevelt 


the  seat  of  the  EngHsh 
Governor  of  Uganda. 
Throughout  our  passage 
the  wind  hardly  ruffled 
the  smooth  surface  of  the 
lake.  As  we  steamed 
away  from  the  eastern 
shore  the  mountains  be- 
hind us  and  on  our  right 
hand  rose  harsh  and  bar- 
ren, yet  with  a  kind  of 
forbidding  beauty.  Dark 
clouds  hung  over  the  land 
we  had  left,  and  a  rain- 
bow stretched  across  their 
front.  At  nightfall,  as  the 
red  sunset  faded,  the  lone- 
ly waters  of  the  vast  in- 
land sea  stretched,  ocean-like,  west  and  south  into  a  shore- 
less gloom.  Then  the  darkness  deepened,  the  tropic  stars 
blazed  overhead,  and  the  light  of  the  half  moon  drowned 
in  silver  the  embers  of  the  sunset. 

Next  morning  we  steamed  along  and  across  the  equator; 
the  last  time  we  were  to  cross  it,  for  thenceforth  our  course 

lay  north- 
ward. We 
passed  by 
many  islands, 
green  with 
meadow  and 
forest,  beau- 
tiful in  the 
bright  sun- 
shine, but 
empty  with 
the  emptiness 
of  death.     A 


1 

1 

J 

%- 

•.^t^ 

'   ■     i- 

\^^ 

"mm 

jm^glSS^'^t^!^  i**-" 

^ 

Kavirondo  bullock  wagons 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


428  AFRICAN    (;AME   ^r RAILS 

decade  previously  these  islands  were  thronged  with  tribes 
of  fisher  folk;  their  villages  studded  the  shores,  and  their 
long  canoes,  planks  held  together  with  fibre,  furrowed  the 
surface  of  the  lake.  Then,  from  out  of  the  depths  of 
the  Congo  forest  came  the  dreadful  scourge  of  the  sleep- 
ing sickness,  and  smote  the  doomed  peoples  who  dwelt 
beside  the  Victorian  Nile,  and  on  the  coasts  of  the  Ny- 
anza  Lakes  and  in  the  lands  between.  Its  agent  was  a 
biting  fly,  brother  to  the  tsetse  whose  bite  is  fatal  to 
domestic  animals.  This  fly  dwells  in  forests,  beside  lakes 
and  rivers;  and  wherever  it  dwells  after  the  sleeping 
sickness  came  it  was  found  that  man  could  not  live. 
In  this  country,  between,  and  along  the  shores  of,  the 
great  lakes,  two  hundred  thousand  people  died  in  slow 
torment,  before  the  hard-taxed  wisdom  and  skill  of  med- 
ical science  and  governmental  administration  could  work 
any  betterment  whatever  in  the  situation.  Men  still  die 
by  thousands,  and  the  disease  is  slowly  spreading  into 
fresh  districts.  But  it  has  proved  possible  to  keep  it 
within  limits  in  the  regions  already  affected;  yet  only  by 
absolutely  abandoning  certain  districts,  and  by  clearing 
all  the  forest  and  brush  in  tracts  which  serve  as  barriers  to 
the  fly,  and  which  permit  passage  through  the  infected 
belts.  On  the  western  shores  of  Victoria  Nyanza,  and  in 
the  islands  adjacent  thereto,  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence 
were  such,  the  mortality  it  caused  was  so  appalling,  that 
the  government  was  finally  forced  to  deport  all  the  sur- 
vivors inland,  to  forbid  all  residence  beside  or  fishing  in 
the  lake,  and  with  this  end  in  view  to  destroy  the  villages 
and  the  fishing  fleets  of  the  people.  The  teeming  lake 
fish  were  formerly  a  main  source  of  food  supply  to  all  who 
dwelt  near  by;  but  this  has  now  been  cut  off,  and  the 
myriads  of  fish  are  left  to  themselves,  to  the  hosts  of  water 
birds,  .and  to  the  monstrous  man-eating  crocodiles  of  the 
lake,  on  whose  blood  the  fly  also  feeds,  and  whence  it  is 
supposed  by  some  that  it  draws  the  germs  so  deadly  to 
humankind. 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA   LAKES  429 

When  we  landed  there  was  nothing  in  the  hot,  laughing, 
tropical  beauty  of  the  land  to  suggest  the  grisly  horror 
that  brooded  so  near.  In  green  luxuriance  the  earth  lay 
under  a  cloudless  sky,  yielding  her  increase  to  the  sun's 
burning  caresses,  and  men  and  women  were  living  their 
lives  and  doing  their  work  well  and  gallantly. 

At  Entebbe  we  stayed  with  the  acting-governor,  Mr. 
Boyle,  at  Kampalla  with  the  district  commissioner,  Mr. 
Knowles;  both  of  them  veteran  administrators,  and  the  latter 


1 

i'ii^ii'iii'iii'M        ■■■■^^^^^ 

1 

^^■■H^fll 

Entebbe,  looking  over  lake 
Fro7n  a  pholograph  by  J.  Alien  Loving 

also  a  mighty  hunter;  and  both  of  them  showed  us  every 
courtesy,  and  treated  us  with  all  possible  kindness.  En- 
tebbe is  a  pretty  little  town  of  English  residents,  chiefly  of- 
ficials; with  well-kept  roads,  a  golf  course,  tennis  courts, 
and  an  attractive  club-house.  The  whole  place  is  bowered 
in  flowers,  on  tree,  bush,  and  vine,  of  every  hue — masses 
of  lilac,  purple,  yellow,  blue,  and  fiery  crimson.  Kampalla 
is  the  native  town,  where  the  little  King  of  Uganda,  a  boy, 
lives,  and  his  chiefs  of  state,  and  where  the  native  council 
meets;  and  it  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  missions,  both 
Church  of  England  and  Roman  Catholic. 

Kampalla  is  an  interesting  place;  and  so  is  all  L'ganda. 
The  first  explorers  who  penetrated  thither,  half  a  century 
ago,  found  in  this  heathen  state,  of  almost  pure  negroes,  a 
veritable  semi-civilization,  or  advanced  barbarism,  compa- 


430 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


rable  to  that  of  the  Httle  Arab-negro  or  Berber-negro  sul- 
tanates strung  along  the  southern  edge  of  the  Sahara,  and 
contrasting  sharply  with  the  weltering  savagery  which 
surrounded  it,  and  which  stretched  away  without  a  break 
for  many  hundreds  of  miles  in  every  direction.  The  peo- 
ple were  industrious  tillers  of  the  soil,  who  owned  sheep, 

goats,  and 
some  cattle; 
they  wore  de- 
cent clothing, 
and  hence 
were  styled 
"womanish" 
by  the  savages 
of  the  Upper 
Nile  region, 
who  prided 
themselves  on 
the  nakedness 
of  their  men 
as  a  proof  of 
manliness; 
they  were  un- 

The  Indian  elephant  at  Entebbe  USUally  intcUi- 

The  only  possession  of  the  white  man  that  really  appalls  the  natives,  as  they 
know  the  wild  elephant  and  cannot  understand  any  one  taming  it  and 
making  it  obey.  Even  the  railroad  fails  to  compare  with  it.  The  mahout 
is  just  mounting 


From  a  photograph  by  Kerniit  Roosevelt 


gent  and  cer- 
emoniously 
courteous; 
and,  most  sin- 
gular of  all,  although  the  monarch  was  a  cruel  despot,  of 
the  usual  African  (whether  Mohammedan  or  heathen)  type, 
there  were  certain  excellent  governmental  customs,  of  bind- 
ing observance,  which  in  the  aggregate  might  almost  be 
called  an  unwritten  constitution.  Alone  among  the  natives 
of  tropical  Africa  the  people  of  Uganda  have  proved  very 
accessible  to  Christian  teaching,  so  that  the  creed  of  Chris- 
tianity is  now  dominant  among  them.  For  their  good 
fortune,  England  has  established  a  protectorate  over  them. 


UGANDA,    AND   THE    XVAXZA    LAKES  431 

Most  wisely  the  English  Government  officials,  and  as  a  rule 
the  missionaries,  have  bent  their  energies  to  developing 
them  along  their  own  lines,  in  government,  dress,  and  ways 
of  life;  constantly  striving  to  better  them  and  bring  them 
forward,  but  not  twisting  them  aside  from  their  natural 
line  of  development,  nor  wrenching  them  loose  from  what 
was  good  in  their  past,  by  attempting  the  impossible  task 
of  turning  an  entire  native  population  into  black  English- 
men at  one  stroke. 

The  problem  set  to  the  governing  caste  in  Uganda  is 
totally  different  from  that  which  offers  itself  in  British 
East  Africa.  The  highlands  of  East  Africa  form  a  white 
man's  country,  and  the  prime  need  is  to  build  up  a  large, 
healthy  population  of  true  white  settlers,  white  home- 
makers,  who  shall  take  the  land  as  an  inheritance  for  their 
children's  children.  Uganda  can  never  be  this  kind  of 
white  man's  country;  and  although  planters  and  mer- 
chants of  the  right  type  can  undoubtedly  do  well  there — to 
the  advantage  of  the  country  as  well  as  of  themselves — it 
must  remain  essentially  a  black  man's  country,  and  the 
chief  task  of  the  officials  of  the  intrusive  and  masterful 
race  must  be  to  bring  forward  the  natives,  to  train  them, 
and  above  all  to  help  them  train  themselves,  so  that  they 
may  advance  in  industry,  in  learning,  in  morality,  in  ca- 
pacity for  self-government — for  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  "giving" 
a  people  self-government;  the  gift  of  the  forms,  when  the 
inward  spirit  is  lacking,  is  mere  folly;  all  that  can  be  done 
is  patiently  to  help  a  people  acquire  the  necessary  qualities 
— social,  moral,  intellectual,  industrial,  and  lastly  political 
— and  meanwhile  to  exercise  for  their  benefit,  with  justice, 
sympathy,  and  firmness,  the  governing  ability  which  as  yet 
they  themselves  lack.  The  widely  spread  rule  of  a  strong 
European  race  in  lands  like  Africa  gives,  as  one  incident 
thereof,  the  chance  for  nascent  cultures,  nascent  semi- 
civilizations,  to  develop  without  fear  of  being  overwhelmed 
in  the  surrounding  gulfs  of  savagery;  and  this  aside  from 
the  direct  stimulus  to  development  conferred  by  the  con- 


432  AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 

sciously  and  unconsciously  exercised  influence  of  the  white 
man,  wherein  there  is  much  of  evil,  but  much  more  of  ulti- 
mate good.  In  any  region  of  wide-spread  savagery,  the 
chances  for  the  growth  of  each  self-produced  civilization  are 
necessarily  small,  because  each  little  centre  of  effort  toward 
this  end  is  always  exposed  to  destruction  from  the  neighbor- 
ing masses  of  pure  savagery;  and  therefore  progress  is  often 
immensely  accelerated  by  outside  invasion  and  control.  In 
Africa  the  control  and  guidance  is  needed  as  much  in  the 
things  of  the  spirit  as  in  the  things  of  the  body.  Those  who 
complain  of  or  rail  at  missionary  work  in  Africa,  and  who 
confine  themselves  to  pointing  out  the  undoubtedly  too 
numerous  errors  of  the  missionaries  and  shortcomings  of 
their  flocks,  would  do  well  to  consider  that  even  if  the 
light  which  has  been  let  in  is  but  feeble  and  gray  it  has  at 
least  dispelled  a  worse  than  Stygian  darkness.  As  soon  as 
native  African  religions — practically  none  of  which  have 
hitherto  evolved  any  substantial  ethical  basis — develop  be- 
yond the  most  primitive  stage  they  tend,  notably  in  middle 
and  western  Africa,  to  grow  into  malign  creeds  of  unspeak- 
able cruelty  and  immorality,  with  a  bestial  and  revolting 
ritual  and  ceremonial.  Even  a  poorly  taught  and  imper- 
fectly understood  Christianity,  with  its  underlying  foun- 
dation of  justice  and  mercy,  represents  an  immeasurable 
advance  on  such  a  creed. 

Where,  as  in  Uganda,  the  people  are  intelligent  and 
the  missionaries  unite  disinterestedness  and  zeal  with  com- 
mon-sense, the  result  is  astounding.  The  majority  ot 
the  people  of  Uganda  are  now  Christian,  Protestant  or 
Catholic;  and  many  thousands  among  them  are  sincerely 
Christian  and  show  their  Christianity  in  practical  fashion  by 
putting  conduct  above  ceremonial  and  dogma.  Most  fortu- 
nately, Protestant  and  Catholic  seem  now  to  be  growing  to 
work  in  charity  together,  and  to  show  rivalry  only  in  healthy 
effort  against  the  common  foe;  there  is  certainly  enough 
evil  in  the  world  to  ofTer  a  target  at  which  all  good  men  can 
direct  their  shafts,  without  expending  them  on  one  another. 


UGANDA,  AND  IHE  NYANZA  LAKES 


433 


We  visited  the  Church  of  England  Mission,  where  we 
were  received  by  Bishop  Tucker,  and  the  two  CathoHc 
Missions,  where  we  were  received  by  Bishops  Hanlon  and 
Streicher;     we   went    through    the   churches   and    saw   the 


Colonel  Roosevek  at  .Motlicr  Paul's  Mission 

Mother  Paul  is  standing  between  her  two  native  women 

Frniii  a  photograph  by  Kcnnil  Rooscvcl 


schools  with  the  pupils  actually  at  work.  In  all  the  missions 
we  were  received  with  American  and  British  flags  and 
listened  to  the  children  singing  the  "Star-spangled  Banner." 
The  Church  of  England  Mission  has  been  at  work  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century;  what  has  been  accomplished  by  Bishop 
Tucker  and  those  associated  with  him  makes  one  of  the 
most  interesting  chapters  in  all  recent  missionary  history. 


28 


434  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

I  saw  the  high-school,  where  the  sons  of  the  chiefs  are 
being  trained  in  large  numbers  for  their  future  duties,  and 
I  was  especially  struck  by  the  admirable  Medical  Mission, 
and  by  the  handsome  cathedral,  built  by  the  native  Chris- 
tians themselves  without  outside  assistance  in  either  money 
or  labor.  At  dinner  at  Mr.  Knowles's,  Bishop  Tucker  gave 
us  exceedingly  interesting  details  of  his  past  experiences 
in  Uganda,  and  of  the  progress  of  the  missionary  work. 
He  had  been  much  amused  by  an  American  missionary 
who  had  urged  him  to  visit  America,  saying  that  he  would 
''find  the  latch-string  outside  the  door";  to  an  American 
who  knows  the  country  districts  well  the  expression  seems 
so  natural  that  I  had  never  even  realized  that  it  was  an 
Americanism. 

At  Bishop  Hanlon's  Mission,  where  I  lunched  with  the 
bishop,  there  was  a  friend.  Mother  Paul,  an  American; 
before  I  left  America  I  had  promised  that  I  would  surely  see 
her,  and  look  into  the  work  which  she,  and  the  sisters  associ- 
ated with  her,  were  doing.  It  was  delightful  seeing  her;  she 
not  merely  spoke  my  language  but  my  neighborhood  dia- 
lect. She  informed  me  that  she  had  just  received  a  mes- 
sage of  good-will  for  me  in  a  letter  from  two  of  ''the  finest" 
— of  course  I  felt  at  home  when  in  mid-Africa,  under  the 
equator,  I  received  in  such  fashion  a  message  from  two 
of  the  men  who  had  served  under  me  in  the  New  York 
police.*  She  had  been  teaching  her  pupils  to  sing  some 
lines  of  the  "Star-spangled  Banner,"  in  English,  in  my 
especial  honor;  and  of  course  had  been  obliged,  in  writ- 
ing it  out,  to  use  spelling  far  more  purely  phonetic  than  I 
had  ever   dreamed   of  using.     The   first   lines   ran  as  fol- 

*  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  do  not  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  New  York 
I  may  explain  that  all  good,  or  typical,  New  Yorkers  invariably  speak  of  their 
police  force  as  "the  finest";  and  if  any  one  desires  to  know  what  a  "good"  or 
"typical"  New  Yorker  is,  I  shall  add,  on  the  authority  of  either  Brander  Mat- 
thews or  the  late  H.  C.  Bunner — I  forget  which — that  when  he  isn't  a  Southerner 
or  of  Irish  or  German  descent  he  is  usually  a  man  born  out  West  of  New  England 
parentage. 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA   LAKES  435 

lows:    (Some   of  our   word    sounds   have   no  equivalent  in 

Uganda.) 

"O   se     ka  nyu    si  bai  di       mo      nseli    laiti 
(O  say  can  you  see  by  the  morn's*  early  light) 

Wati   so   pulaull   wi      eli     adi  twayi     laiti      silasi   giremi" 
(What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at     the  twilight's  last  gleaming.) 

After  having  taught  the  children  the  first  verse  in  this 
manner  Mother  Paul  said  that  she  stopped  to  avoid  brain 
fever. 

In  addition  to  scholastic  exercises  Mother  Paul  and  her 
associates  were  training  their  school  children  in  all  kinds 
of  industrial  work,  taking  especial  pains  to  develop  those 
industries  that  were  natural  to  them  and  would  be  of  use 
when  they  returned  to  their  own  homes.  Both  at  Bishop 
Hanlon's  Mission,  and  at  Bishop  Streicher's,  the  Mission 
of  the  White  Fathers— originally  a  French  organization, 
which  has  established  churches  and  schools  in  almost  all 
parts  of  Africa— the  fathers  were  teaching  the  native  men 
to  cultivate  coffee,  and  various  fruits  and  vegetables. 

I  called  on  the  little  king,  who  is  being  well  trained 
by  his  English  tutor — few  tutors  perform  more  exacting 
or  responsible  duties— and  whose  comfortable  house  was 
furnished  in  English  fashion.  I  met  his  native  advisers, 
shrewd,  powerful- looking  men;  and  went  into  the  Council 
Chamber,  where  I  was  greeted  by  the  council,  substantial- 
looking  men,  well  dressed  in  the  native  fashion,  and  rep- 
resenting all  the  districts  of  the  kingdom.  When  we  vis- 
ited the  king  it  was  after  dark,  and  we  were  received  by 
smart-looking  black  soldiers  in  ordinary  khaki  uniform, 
while  accompanying  them  were  other  attendants  dressed 
in  the  old-time  native  fashion;  men  with  flaming  torches, 
and  others  with  the  big  Uganda  drums  which  they  beat  to 
an  accompaniment  of  wild  cries.  These  drums  are  char- 
acteristic of  Uganda;    each  chief  has  one,  and  beats  upon 


436 


AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 


it  his  own  peculiar  tattoo.  The  king,  and  all  other  people 
of  consequence,  white,  Indian,  or  native,  went  round  in 
rickshaws,  one  man  pulling  in  the  shafts  and  three  others 
pushing  behind.  The  rickshaw  men  ran  well,  and  sang 
all  the  time,  the  man  in  the  shafts  serving  as  shanty-man, 
while  the  three  behind  repeated  in  chorus  every  second 
or  two  a  kind  of  clanging  note;    and  this  went  on  without 

a  break,  hour 
after  hour. 
The  n  a  t  iv  e  s 
looked  well 
and  were 
dressed  well; 
the  men  in 
long  flowing 
garments  of 
white,  the 
women  usually 
in  brown  cloth 
made  in  the  old 
native  style  out 
of  the  bark  of 
the  bark  cloth 
tree.  The 
clothes  of  the  chiefs  were  tastefully  ornamented.  All  the 
people,  gentle  and  simple,  were  very  polite  and  ceremonious 
both  to  one  another  and  to  strangers.  Now  and  then  we 
met  parties  of  Sikh  soldiers,  tall,  bearded,  fine-looking  men 
with  turbans;  and  there  were  Indian  and  Swahili  and 
even  Arab  and  Persian  traders. 

The  houses  had  mud  walls  and  thatched  roofs.  The 
gardens  were  surrounded  by  braided  cane  fences.  In  the 
gardens  and  along  the  streets  were  many  trees;  among  them 
bark  cloth  trees,  from  which  the  bark  is  stripped  every 
year  for  cloth;  great  incense-trees,  the  sweet-scented  gum 
oozing  through  wounds  in  the  bark;  and  date-palms,  in  the 
fronds  of  which  hung  the  nests  of  the  golden  weaver-birds. 


Mother  Paul's  band  composed  of  mission  boys 
From  a  pholograpli  by  Kcnnit  Roosevell 


UGANDA.    AND   THE    XVANZA    LAKES 


437 


now  breeding.  White  cow-herons,  tamer  than  barn-yard 
fowls,  accompanied  the  cattle,  perching  on  their  backs, 
or  walking  beside  them.  Beautiful  Kavirondo  cranes  came 
familiarly  round  the  houses.  It  was  all  strange  and  at- 
tractive. Birds  sang  everywhere.  The  air  was  heavy 
with  the  fragrance  of  flowers  of  many  colors;  the  whole 
place  was  a  riot  of  lush  growing  plants.     Every  day  there 


Colonel  Roosevelt  at  the  Mission  ot  the  White  I-'athers 
From  a  pJwto^raph  hy  Kcrmit  Roosevelt 

were  terrific  thunder-storms.  At  Kampalla  three  men 
had  been  killed  by  lightning  within  six  weeks;  a  year  or  two 
before  our  host,  Knowles,  had  been  struck  by  lightning 
and  knocked  senseless,  a  huge  zigzag  mark  being  left  across 
his  body,  and  the  links  of  his  gold  watch  chain  being  fused; 
it  was  many  months  before  he  completely  recovered. 

Knowles  arranged  a  situtunga  hunt  for  us.  The  situ- 
tunga  is  closely  related  to  the  bushbuck  but  is  bigger,  with 
very  long  hoofs,  and  shaggy  hair  like  a  waterbuck.  It  is 
exclusively  a  beast  of  the  marshes,  making  its  home  in  the 
thick  reedbeds,  where  the  water  is  deep;  and  it  is  exceed- 
ingly shy,  so  that  very  few  white  men  have  shot,  or  even 


438  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

seen,  it.  Its  long  hoofs  enable  it  to  go  over  the  most  treach- 
erous ground,  and  it  swims  well;  in  many  of  its  haunts,  in 
the  thick  papyrus,  the  water  is  waist  deep  on  a  man. 
Through  the  papyrus,  and  the  reeds  and  marsh  grass,  it 
makes  well-beaten  paths.  Where  it  is  in  any  danger  of 
molestation  it  is  never  seen  abroad  in  the  daytime,  vent- 
uring from  the  safe  cover  of  the  high  reeds  only  at  night; 
but  fifty  miles  inland,  in  the  marsh  grass  on  the  edge  of  a 
big  papyrus  swamp,  Kermit  caught  a  glimpse  of  half  a 
dozen  feeding  in  the  open,  knee-deep  in  water,  long  after 
sunrise.  On  the  hunt  in  question  a  patch  of  marsh  was 
driven  by  a  hundred  natives,  while  the  guns  were  strung 
along  the  likely  passes  which  led  to  another  patch  of  marsh. 
A  fine  situtunga  buck  came  to  Kermit's  post,  and  he  killed 
it  as  it  bolted  away.  It  had  stolen  up  so  quietly  through 
the  long  marsh  grass  that  he  only  saw  it  when  it  was 
directly  on  him.  Its  stomach  contained  not  grass,  but 
the  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  a  shrub  which  grows  in  and 
alongside  of  the  marshes. 

The  day  after  this  hunt  our  safari  started  on  its  march 
north-westward  to  Lake  Albert  Nyanza.  We  had  taken 
with  us  from  East  Africa  our  gun-bearers,  tent  boys,  and 
the  men  whom  the  naturalists  had  trained  as  skinners.  The 
porters  were  men  of  Uganda;  the  askaris  were  from  the 
constabulary,  and  widely  different  races  were  represented 
among  them,  but  all  had  been  drilled  into  soldierly  uniform- 
ity. The  porters  were  well-clad,  well-behaved,  fine-looking 
men,  and  did  their  work  better  than  the  "shenzis,"  the  wild 
Meru  of  Kikuyu  tribesmen,  whom  we  had  occasionally  em- 
ployed in  East  Africa;  but  they  were  not  the  equals  of 
the  regular  East  African  porters.  I  think  this  was  largely 
because  of  their  inferior  food,  for  they  ate  chiefly  yams 
and  plantains;  in  other  words  inferior  sweet-potatoes  and 
bananas.  They  were  quite  as  fond  of  singing  as  the  East 
African  porters,  and  in  addition  were  cheered  on  the  march 
by  drum  and  fife;  several  men  had  fifes,  and  one  carried 
nothing  but  one  of  the  big  Uganda  drums,  which  he  usually 


UGANDA,   AND  THE  NYANZA  LAKES 


439 


bore  at  the  head  of  the  safari,  marching  iri  company  with 
the  flag-bearer.  Every  hour  or  two  the  men  would  halt, 
often  beside  one  of  the  queer  little  wicker-work  booths  in 
which  native 
hucksters  dis- 
posed of  their 
wares  by  the 
roadside. 

Along  the  road 
we  often  met 
wayfarers;  once 
or  twice  bullock 
carts;  more  often 
men  carrying 
rolls  of  hides  or 
long  bales  of  cot- 
ton on  their 
heads;  or  a  set  of 
Bahima  herds- 
men, with  clear- 
cut  features, 
guarding  their 
herds  of  huge- 
horned  Angola 
cattle. 

All  greeted  us 
most  courteous- 
ly, frequently 
crouching  or 
kneeling,  as  is 
their  custom 
when  they  salute 

a  superior;  and  we  were  scrupulous  to  acknowledge  their 
salutes,  and  to  return  their  greetings  in  the  native  fashion, 
with  words  of  courtesy  and  long-drawn  e-h-h-s  and  a-a-h-s. 
Along  the  line  of  march  the  chiefs  had  made  preparations 
to   receive   us.    Each  afternoon,   as  we   came  to  the  spot 


'i'he  situtunga  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kampalla 
From  a  pholograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


440  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

where  we  were  to  camp  for  the  night,  we  found  a  cleared 
space  strewed  with  straw  and  surrounded  by  a  plaited  reed 
fence.  Within  this  space  cane  houses,  with  thatched  roofs 
of  coarse  grass,  had  been  erected,  some  for  our  stores,  one 
for  a  kitchen,  one,  which  was  always  decked  with  flowers, 
as  a  rest-house  for  ourselves;  the  latter  with  open  sides, 
the  roof  upheld  by  cane  pillars,  so  that  it  was  cool  and  com- 
fortable, and  afforded  a  welcome  shelter,  either  from  the 
burning  sun  if  the  weather  was  clear,  or  from  the  pelting, 
driving  tropical  storms  if  there  was  rain.  The  moon  was 
almost  full  when  we  left  Kampalla,  and  night  after  night 
it  lent  a  half  unearthly  beauty  to  the  tropical  landscape. 

Sometimes  in  the  evenings  the  miosquitoes  bothered  us; 
more  often  they  did  not;  but  in  any  event  we  slept  well 
under  our  nettings.  Usually  at  each  camp  we  found  either 
the  head  chief  of  the  district,  or  a  sub-chief,  with  presents; 
eggs,  chickens,  sheep,  once  or  twice  a  bullock,  always  pine- 
apples and  bananas.  The  chief  was  always  well  dressed 
in  flowing  robes,  and  usually  welcomed  us  with  dignity 
and  courtesy  (sometimes,  however,  permitting  the  courtesy 
to  assume  the  form  of  servility);  and  we  would  have  him 
in  to  tea,  where  he  was  sure  to  enjoy  the  bread  and  jam. 
Sometimes  he  came  in  a  rickshaw,  sometimes  in  a  kind  of 
wicker-work  palanquin,  sometimes  on  foot.  When  we  left 
his  territory  we  made  him  a  return  gift. 

We  avoided  all  old  camping  grounds,  because  of  the 
spirillum  tick.  This  dangerous  fever  tick  is  one  of  the 
insect  scourges  of  Uganda,  for  its  bite  brings  on  a  virulent 
spirillum  fever  which  lasts  intermittently  for  months, 
and  may  be  accompanied  by  partial  paralysis.  It  is  com- 
mon on  old  camping  grounds  and  in  native  villages.  The 
malarial  mosquitoes  also  abound  in  places;  and  repeated 
attacks  of  malaria  pave  the  way  for  black  water  fever, 
which  is  often  fatal. 

The  first  day's  march  from  Kampalla  led  us  through 
shambas,  the  fields  of  sweet-potatoes  and  plantations  of 
bananas  being  separated  by  hedges  or  by  cane  fences.    Then 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA   LAKES 


441 


for  two  or  three  days  we  passed  over  low  hills  and  through 
swampy  valleys,  the  whole  landscape  covered  by  a  sea  of 
elephant  grass,  the  close-growing,  coarse  blades  more  than 
twice  the  height  of  a  man  on  horseback.  Here  and  there 
it  was  dotted  with  groves  of  strange  trees;  in  these  groves 
monkeys  of  various  kinds — some  black,  some  red-tailed, 
some  auburn — chattered  as  they  raced  away  among  the 
branches;    there  were  brilliant  rollers  and  bee-eaters;    little 


i'^. 


Road  through  banana  shambas,  Uganda 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Atden  Loring 

green  and  yellow  parrots,  and  gray  parrots  with  red  tails; 
and  many  colored  butterflies.  Once  or  twice  we  saw  the 
handsome,  fierce,  short-tailed  eagle,  the  bateleur  eagle,  and 
scared  one  from  a  reedbuck  fawn  it  had  killed.  Among 
the  common  birds  there  were  black  drongos  and  musical 
bush  shrikes;  small  black  magpies  with  brown  tails;  white- 
headed  kites  and  slate-colored  sparrow-hawks;  palm  swifts, 
big  hornbills;  blue  and  mottled  kingfishers,  which  never 
went  near  the  water,  and  had  their  upper  mandibles  red 
and  their  under  ones  black;  barbets,  with  swollen,  saw- 
toothed  bills,  their  plumage  iridescent  purple  above  and  red 
below;  bulbuls,  also  dark  purple  above  and  red  below,  which 
whistled  and  bubbled  incessantly  as  they  hopped  among  the 


442  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

thick  bushes,  behaving  much  Uke  our  own  yellow-breasted 
chats;  and  a  multitude  of  other  birds,  beautiful  or  fantastic. 
There  were  striped  squirrels  too,  reminding  us  of  the  big 
Rocky  Mountain  chipmunk  or  Say's  chipmunk,  but  with 
smaller  ears  and  a  longer  tail. 

Christmas  day  we  passed  on  the  march.  There  is  not 
much  use  in  trying  to  celebrate  Christmas  unless  there  are 
small  folks  to  hang  up  their  stockings  on  Christmas  Eve, 
to  rush  gleefully  in  at  dawn  next  morning  to  open  the 
stockings,  and  after  breakfast  to  wait  in  hopping  expec- 
tancy until  their  elders  throw  open  the  doors  of  the  room 
in  which  the  big  presents  are  arranged,  those  for  each  child 
on  a  separate  table. 

Forty  miles  from  the  coast  the  elephant  grass  began  to 
disappear.  The  hills  became  somewhat  higher,  there  were 
thorn-trees,  and  stately  royal  palms  of  great  height,  their 
stems  swollen  and  bulging  at  the  top,  near  the  fronds. 
Parasitic  ferns,  with  leaves  as  large  as  cabbage  leaves,  grew 
on  the  branches  of  the  acacias.  One  kind  of  tree  sent 
down  from  its  branches  to  the  ground  roots  which  grew 
into  thick  trunks.  There  were  wide,  shallow  marshes,  and 
although  the  grass  was  tall  it  was  no  longer  above  a  man's 
head.  Kermit  and  I  usually  got  two  or  three  hours'  hunting 
each  day.  We  killed  singsing  waterbuck,  bushbuck,  and 
bohor  reedbuck.  The  reedbuck  differed  slightly  from  those 
of  East  Africa;  in  places  they  were  plentiful,  and  they 
were  not  wary.  We  also  killed  several  hartebeests;  a  vari- 
ety of  the  Jackson's  hartebeest,  being  more  highly  colored, 
with  black  markings.  I  killed  a  very  handsome  harnessed 
bushbuck  ram.  It  was  rather  bigger  than  a  good-sized 
white-tail  buck,  its  brilliant  red  coat  beautifully  marked 
with  rows  of  white  spots,  its  twisted  black  horns  sharp 
and  polished.  It  seemed  to  stand  about  half-way  between 
the  dark-colored  bushbuck  rams  of  East  and  South  Africa 
and  the  beautifully  marked  harnessed  antelope  rams  of 
the  west  coast  forests.  The  ewes  and  young  rams  showed 
the   harness   markings   even   more   plainly;     and,   as   with 


UGANDA,   AND  THE   NYAXZA   LAKES  US 

all  bushbuck,  were  of  small  size  compared  to  the  old  rams. 
These  bushbuck  were  found  in  tall  grass,  where  the  ground 
was  wet,  instead  of  in  the  thick  bush  where  their  East 
African  kinsfolk  spend  the  daytime. 

At  the  bushbuck  camp  we  met  a  number  of  porters 
returning  from  the  Congo,  where  they  had  been  with  an 
elephant  poacher  named  Busherri — at  least  that  was  as 
near  the  name  as  we  could  make  out.  He  had  gone  into 
the  Congo  to  get  ivory,  by  shooting  and  trading;  but  the 
wild  forest  people  had  attacked  him,  and  had  killed  him 
and  seven  of  his  followers,  and  the  others  were  straggling 
homeward.  In  Kampalla  we  had  met  an  elephant  hunter 
named  Quin  who  had  recently  lost  his  right  arm  in  an 
encounter  with  a  wounded  tusker.  Near  one  camp  the 
head  chief  pointed  out  two  places,  now  overgrown  with 
jungle,  where  little  villages  had  stood  less  than  a  year  be- 
fore. In  each  case  elephants  had  taken  to  feeding  at  night 
in  the  shambas,  and  had  steadily  grown  bolder  and  bolder 
until  the  natives,  their  crops  ruined  by  the  depredations 
and  their  lives  in  danger,  had  abandoned  the  struggle,  and 
shifted  to  some  new  place  in  the  wilderness. 

We  were  soon  to  meet  elephant  ourselves.  The  morn- 
ing of  the  28th  was  rainy;  we  struck  camp  rather  late, 
and  the  march  was  long,  so  that  it  was  mid-afternoon  when 
Kermit  and  I  reached  our  new  camping  place.  Soon 
afterward  word  was  brought  us  that  some  elephants  were 
near  by;  we  were  told  that  the  beasts  were  in  the  habit  of 
devastating  the  shambas,  and  were  bold  and  truculent,  hav- 
ing killed  a  man  who  had  tried  to  interfere  with  them. 
Kermit  and  I  at  once  started  after  them,  just  as  the  last  of 
the  safari  came  in,  accompanied  by  Cuninghame,  who 
could  not  go  with  us  as  he  was  recovering  from  a  bout  of 
fever. 

In  half  an  hour  we  came  on  fresh  sign,  and  began  to 
work  cautiously  along  it.  Our  guide,  a  wild-looking  savage 
with  a  blunt  spear,  went  first,  followed  by  my  gun-bearer, 
Kongoni,  who  is  excellent  on  spoor;   then  I  came,  followed 


444  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

by  Kermit,  and  by  the  other  gun-bearers.  The  country  was 
covered  with  tall  grass,  and  studded  with  numerous  patches 
of  jungle  and  small  forest.  In  a  few  minutes  we  heard 
the  elephants,  four  or  five  of  them,  feeding  in  thick  jungle 
where  the  vines  that  hung  in  tangled  masses  from  the  trees 
and  that  draped  the  bushes  made  dark  caves  of  greenery. 
It  was  difficult  to  find  any  space  clear  enough  to  see  thirty 
yards  ahead.  Fortunately  there  was  no  wind  whatever.  We 
picked  out  the  spoor  of  a  big  bull  and  for  an  hour  and  a  half 
we  followed  it,  Kongoni  usually  in  the  lead.  Two  or  three 
times,  as  we  threaded  our  way  among  the  bushes,  as  noise- 
lessly as  possible,  we  caught  glimpses  of  gray,  shadowy  bulks, 
but  only  for  a  second  at  a  time,  and  never  with  sufficient  dis- 
tinctness to  shoot.  The  elephants  were  feeding,  tearing 
down  the  branches  of  a  rather  large-leafed  tree  with  bark 
like  that  of  a  scrub-oak  and  big  pods  containing  beans; 
evidently  these  beans  were  a  favorite  food.  They  fed  in 
circles  and  zigzags,  but  toward  camp,  until  they  were  not 
much  more  than  half  a  mile  from  it,  and  the  noise  made  by 
the  porters  in  talking  and  gathering  wood  was  plainly 
audible;  but  the  elephants  paid  no  heed  to  it,  being  evi- 
dently too  much  accustomed  to  the  natives  to  have  much 
fear  of  man.  We  continually  heard  them  breaking  branches, 
and  making  rumbling  or  squeaking  sounds.  They  then 
fed  slowly  along  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  got  into 
rather  more  open  country;  and  we  followed  faster  in  the 
big  footprints  of  the  bull  we  had  selected.  Suddenly  in  an 
open  glade  Kongoni  crouched  and  beckoned  to  me,  and 
through  a  bush  I  caught  the  loom  of  the  tusker.  But  at 
that  instant  he  either  heard  us,  saw  us,  or  caught  a  whifi^ 
of  our  wind,  and  without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  him- 
self assumed  the  offensive.  With  his  huge  ears  cocked  at 
right  angles  to  his  head,  and  his  trunk  hanging  down,  he 
charged  full  tilt  at  us,  coming  steadily,  silently,  and  at  a 
great  pace,  his  feet  swishing  through  the  long  grass;  and  a 
formidable  monster  he  looked.  At  forty  yards  I  fired  the 
right  barrel  of  the  Holland   into  his  head,   and  though  I 


UGANDA,  AND  THE  NYANZA  LAKES       44.5 

missed  the  brain  the  shock  dazed  him  and  brought  him  to 
an  instant  hah.  Immediately  Kermit  put  a  bullet  from 
the  Winchester  into  his  head;  as  he  wheeled  I  ga\e  him 
the  second  barrel  between  the  neck  and  shoulder,  through 
his  ear;  and  Kermit  gave  him  three  more  shots  before  he 
slewed  round  and  disappeared.  There  were  not  many 
minutes  of  daylight  left,  and  we  followed  hard  on  his  trail, 
Kongoni  leading.  At  first  there  was  only  an  occasional 
gout  of  dark  blood;  but  soon  we  found  splashes  of  red 
froth  from  the  lungs;  then  we  came  to  where  he  had  fallen, 
and  then  we  heard  him  crashing  among  the  branches  in 
thick  jungle  to  the  right.  In  we  went  after  him,  through 
the  gathering  gloom,  Kongoni  leading  and  I  close  behind, 
with  the  rifle  ready  for  instant  action;  for  though  his 
strength  was  evidently  fast  failing,  he  was  also  evidently 
in  a  savage  temper,  anxious  to  wreak  his  vengeance  before 
he  died.  On  we  went,  following  the  bloody  trail  through 
dim,  cavernous  windings  in  the  dark,  vine-covered  jungle; 
we  heard  him  smash  the  branches  but  a  few  yards  ahead, 
and  fall  and  rise;  and  stealing  forward  Kermit  and  I 
slipped  up  to  within  a  dozen  feet  of  him  as  he  stood  on 
the  other  side  of  some  small  twisted  trees,  hung  with  a  mat 
of  creepers.  I  put  a  bullet  into  his  heart,  Kermit  fired; 
each  of  us  fired  again  on  the  instant;  the  mighty  bull  threw 
up  his  trunk,  crashed  over  backward,  and  lay  dead  on  his 
side  among  the  bushes.  A  fine  sight  he  was,  a  sight  to  glad- 
den any  hunter's  heart,  as  he  lay  in  the  twilight,  a  giant  in 
death. 

At  once  we  trotted  back  to  camp,  reaching  it  as  dark- 
ness fell;  and  next  morning  all  of  us  came  out  to  the  carcass. 
He  was  full  grown,  and  was  ten  feet  nine  inches  high. 
The  tusks  were  rather  short,  but  thick,  and  weighed  a 
hundred  and  ten  pounds  the  pair.  Out  of  the  trunk  we 
made  excellent  soup. 

Several  times  while  following  the  trail  of  this  big  bull 
we  could  tell  he  was  close  by  the  strong  elephant  smell. 
Most   game   animals   have   a    peculiar   scent,    often   strong 


446  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

enough  for  the  species  to  be  readily  recognizable  before 
it  is  seen,  if  in  forest  or  jungle.  On  the  open  plains,  of 
course,  one  rarely  gets  close  enough  to  an  animal  to  smell 
it  before  seeing  it;  but  I  once  smelled  a  herd  of  hartebeest, 
when  the  wind  was  blowing  strongly  from  them,  although 


The  dead  tusker 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alien  Loring 


they  were  out  of  sight  over  a  gentle  rise.  Waterbuck  have 
a  very  strong  smell.  Buffalo  smell  very  much  like  do- 
mestic cattle,  but  old  bulls  are  rank.  More  than  once, 
in  forest,  my  nostrils  have  warned  me  before  my  eyes  that 
I  was  getting  near  the  quarry  whose  spoor  I  was  on. 

After  leaving  the  elephant  camp  we  journeyed  through 
country  for  the  most  part  covered  with  an  open  forest 
growth.  The  trees  were  chiefly  acacias.  Among  them 
were  interspersed  huge  candelabra  euphorbias,  all  in 
bloom,  and  now  and  then  one  of  the  brilliant  red  flowering 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA   LAKES  447 

trees,  which  never  seem  to  carry  many  leaves  at  the  same 
time  with  their  gaudy  blossoms.  At  one  place  for  miles 
the  open  forest  was  composed  of  the  pod-bearing,  thick- 
leafed  trees  on  which  we  had  found  the  elephants  feeding; 
their  bark  and  manner  of  growth  gave  them  somewhat 
the  look  of  jack-oaks;  where  they  made  up  the  forest, 
growing  well  apart  from  one  another,  it  reminded  us  of  the 
cross-timbers  of  Texas  and  Oklahoma.  The  grass  was 
everywhere  three  or  four  feet  high;  here  and  there  were 
patches  of  the  cane-like  elephant  grass,  fifteen  feet  high. 

It  was  pleasant  to  stride  along  the  road  in  the  early 
mornings,  followed  by  the  safari,  and  we  saw  many  a  glo- 
rious sunrise.  But  as  noon  approached  it  grew  very  hot, 
under  the  glare  of  the  brazen  equatorial  sun,  and  we  were 
always  glad  when  we  approached  our  new  camp,  with  its 
grass-strewn  ground,  its  wicker-work  fence,  and  cool,  open 
rest-house.  The  local  sub-chief  and  his  elders  were  usually 
drawn  up  to  receive  me  at  the  gate,  bowing,  clapping  their 
hands,  and  uttering  their  long-drawn  e-h-h-s;  and  often 
banana  saplings  or  branches  would  be  stuck  in  the  ground 
to  form  avenues  of  approach,  and  the  fence  and  rest-house 
might  be  decorated  with  flowers  of  many  kinds.  Some- 
times we  were  met  with  music,  on  instruments  of  one 
string,  of  three  strings,  of  ten  strings — rudimentary  fiddles 
and  harps;  and  there  was  a  much  more  complicated  in- 
strument, big  and  cumbrous,  made  of  bars  of  wood  placed 
on  two  banana  stems,  the  bars  being  struck  with  a  hammer, 
as  if  they  were  keys;  its  tones  were  deep  and  good.  Along 
the  road  we  did  not  see  habitations  or  people;  but  con- 
tinually there  led  away  from  it,  twisting  through  the  tall 
grass  and  the  bush  jungles,  native  paths,  the  earth  beaten 
brown  and  hard  by  countless  bare  feet;  and  these,  cross- 
ing and  recrossing  in  a  net-work,  led  to  plantation  after 
plantation  of  bananas  and  sweet-potatoes,  and  clusters  of 
thatched  huts. 

In  the  afternoon,  as  the  sun  began  to  get  well  beyond 
the  meridian,  we  usually  sallied  forth  to  hunt,  under  the 


448  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

guidance  of  some  native  who  had  come  in  to  tell  us  where 
he  had  seen  game  that  morning.  The  jungle  was  so  thick 
in  places  and  the  grass  was  everywhere  so  long,  that  with- 
out such  guidance  there  was  little  successful  hunting  to  be 
done  in  only  two  or  three  hours.  We  might  come  back 
with  a  buck,  or  with  two  or  three  guinea-fowl,  or  with 
nothing. 

There  were  a  good  many  poisonous  snakes;  I  killed  a 
big  pufif  adder  with  thirteen  eggs  inside  it;  and  we  also 
killed  a  squat,  short-tailed  viper,  beautifully  mottled,  not 
eighteen  inches  long,  but  with  a  wide,  flat  head  and  a  girth 
of  body  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  length;  and  another 
very  poisonous  and  vicious  snake,  apparently  of  colubrine 
type,  long  and  slender.  The  birds  were  an  unceasing 
pleasure.  White  wagtails  and  yellow  wagtails  walked 
familiarly  about  us  within  a  few  feet,  wherever  we  halted 
and  when  we  were  in  camp.  Long-tailed,  crested  colys, 
with  all  four  of  their  red  toes  pointed  forward,  clung  to  the 
sides  of  the  big  fruits  at  which  they  picked.  White-headed 
swallows  caught  flies  and  gnats  by  our  heads.  There  were 
large  plantain-eaters;  and  birds  like  small  jays  with  yel- 
low wattles  round  the  eyes.  There  were  boat-tailed  birds, 
in  color  iridescent  green  and  purple,  which  looked  like  our 
grakles,  but  were  kin  to  the  bulbuls;  and  another  bird, 
related  to  the  shrikes,  with  bristly  feathers  on  the  rump, 
which  was  colored  like  a  red-winged  blackbird,  black  with 
red  shoulders.  Vultures  were  not  plentiful,  but  the  yellow- 
billed  kites,  true  camp  scavengers,  were  common  and  tame, 
screaming  as  they  circled  overhead,  and  catching  bits  of 
meat  which  were  thrown  in  the  air  for  them.  The  shrews 
and  mice  which  the  naturalists  trapped  around  each  camp- 
ing place  were  kin  to  the  species  we  had  already  obtained 
in  East  Africa,  but  in  most  cases  there  was  a  fairly  well- 
marked  difference;  the  jerbilles  for  instance  had  shorter 
tails,  more  like  ordinary  rats.  Frogs  with  queer  voices 
abounded  in  the  marshes.  Among  the  ants  was  one  ar- 
boreal kind  which  made  huge  nests,  shaped  like  beehives 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA   LAKES  449 

or  rather  like  big  gray  bells,  in  the  trees.  Near  the  lake,  by 
the  way,  there  were  Goliath  beetles,  as  large  as  small  rats. 
Ten  days  from  Kampalla  we  crossed  the  little  Kafu 
River,  the  black,  smooth  current  twisting  quickly  along 
between  beds  of  plumed  papyrus.  Beyond  it  we  entered 
the  native  kingdom  of  Unyoro.  It  is  part  of  the  British  pro- 
tectorate of  Uganda,  but  is  separate  from  the  native  king- 
dom of  Uganda,  though  its  people  in  ethnic  type  and  social 
development  seem  much  the  same.     We  halted  for  a  day 


Porters  entering  camp  at  Hoima 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alien  Loring 

at  Hoima,  a  spread-out  little  native  town,  pleasantly  situ- 
ated among  hills,  and  surrounded  by  plantations  of  cot- 
ton, plaintains,  yams,  millet,  and  beans.  It  is  the  capital 
of  Unyoro,  where  the  king  lives,  as  well  as  three  or  four 
English  officials,  and  Episcopalian  and  Roman  Catholic 
missionaries.  The  king,  accompanied  by  his  prime-min- 
ister and  by  the  English  commissioner,  called  on  me,  and 
I  gave  him  five-o'clock  tea;  he  is  a  Christian,  as  are  most 
of  his  chiefs  and  headmen,  and  they  are  sending  their 
children  to  the  mission  schools. 

A  heron,  about  the  size  of  our  night  heron  but  with  a 
longer  neck,  and  with  a  curiously  crow-like  voice,  strolled 
about  among  the  native  houses  at  Hoima;    and  the  kites 

29 


450 


AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 


almost  brushed  us  with  their  wings  as  they  swooped  down 
for  morsels  of  food.  The  cheerful,  confiding  little  wagtails 
crossed  the  threshold  of  the  rest-house  in  which  we  sat. 
Black-and-white  crows  and  vultures  came  around  camp; 
and  handsome,  dark  hawks,  with  white  on  their  wings 
and  tails,  and  with  long,  conspicuous  crests,  perched  up- 
right on  the  trees.    There  were  many  kinds  of  doves;    one 


Cow-herons  and  Angola  ox  on  the  bank  of  Lake  Mctoria  Nyanza 
Fro7n  a  photograph  by  J.  Alden  Loring 


pretty  little  fellow  was  but  six  inches  long.  At  night  the 
jackals  wailed  with  shrill  woe  among  the  .gardens. 

From  Hoima  we  entered  a  country  covered  with  the 
tall,  rank  elephant  grass.  It  was  traversed  by  papyrus- 
bordered  streams  and  broken  by  patches  of  forest.  The 
date-palms  grew  tall,  and  among  the  trees  were  some  with 
orange-red  flowers  like  trumpet  flowers  growing  in  grape- 
shaped  clusters;  and  both  the  flowers  and  the  seed-pods 
into  which  they  turned  stood  straight  up  in  rows  above  the 
leafy  tops  of  the  trees  that  bore  them. 

The  first  evening,  as  we  sat  in  the  cool,  open  cane 
rest-house,  word  was  brought  us  that  an  elephant  was  close 


UGANDA,   AND  THE  NYANZA  LAKES  451 

at  hand.  We  found  him  after  ten  minutes'  walk;  a  young 
bull,  with  very  small  tusks,  not  worth  shooting.  For  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  we  watched  him,  strolling  about  and 
feeding,  just  on  the  edge  of  a  wall  of  high  elephant  grass. 
Although  we  were  in  plain  sight,  ninety  yards  off,  and 
sometimes  moved  about,  he  never  saw  us;  for  an  elephant's 
eyes  are  very  bad.  He  was  feeding  on  some  thick,  luscious 
grass,  in  the  usual  leisurely  elephant  fashion,  plucking  a 
big  tuft,  waving  it  nonchalantly  about  in  his  trunk,  and 
finally  tucking  it  into  his  mouth;  pausing  to  rub  his  side 
against  a  tree,  or  to  sway  to  and  fro  as  he  stood;  and  con- 
tinually waving  his  tail  and  half  cocking  his  ears. 

At  noon  on  January  5th,  1910,  we  reached  Butiaba,  a 
sandspit  and  marsh  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Albert  Nyanza. 
We  had  marched  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from 
Lake  Victoria.  We  camped  on  the  sandy  beach  by  the 
edge  of  the  beautiful  lake,  looking  across  its  waters  to  the 
mountains  that  walled  in  the  opposite  shore.  At  mid-day 
the  whole  landscape  trembled  in  the  white,  glaring  heat; 
as  the  afternoon  waned  a  wind  blew  off  the  lake,  and  the 
west  kindled  in  ruddy  splendor  as  the  sun  went  down. 

At  Butiaba  we  took  boats  to  go  down  the  Nile  to  the 
Lado  country.  The  head  of  the  water  transportation  ser- 
vice in  Uganda,  Captain  Hutchinson,  R.N.R.,  met  us, 
having  most  kindly  decided  to  take  charge  of  our  flotilla 
himself.  Captain  Hutchinson  was  a  mighty  hunter,  and 
had  met  with  one  most  extraordinary  experience  while 
elephant  hunting;  in  Uganda  the  number  of  hunters  who 
have  been  killed  or  injured  by  elephants  and  buffaloes  is 
large.  He  wounded  a  big  bull  in  the  head,  and  followed 
it  for  three  days.  The  wound  was  serious  and  on  the 
fourth  day  he  overtook  the  elephant.  It  charged  as  soon 
as  it  saw  him.  He  hit  it  twice  in  the  head  with  his  .450 
double-barrel  as  it  came  on,  but  neither  stopped  nor  turned 
it;  his  second  rifle,  a  double  8  bore,  failed  to  act;  and  the 
elephant  seized  him  in  its  trunk.  It  brandished  him  to  and 
fro  in  the  air  several  times,  and  then  planting  him  on  the 


-,n 


X 


UGANDA,   AND   THE   NYANZA  LAKES  45S 

ground  knelt  and  stabbed  at  him  with  its  tusks.  Grasping 
one  of  its  forelegs  he  pulled  himself  between  them  in 
time  to  avoid  the  blow;  and  as  it  rose  he  managed  to  seize 
a  hind  leg  and  clung  to  it.  But  the  tusker  reached  round 
and  plucked  him  off  with  its  trunk,  and  once  more  bran- 
dished him  high  in  the  air,  swinging  him  violently  about. 
He  fainted  from  pain  and  dizziness.  When  he  came  to 
he  was  lying  on  the  ground;  one  of  his  attendants  had 
stabbed  the  elephant  with  a  spear,  whereupon  the  animal 
had  dropped  the  white  man,  vainly  tried  to  catch  its  new 
assailant,  and  had  then  gone  off  for  some  three  miles  and 
died.  Hutchinson  was  frightfully  bruised  and  strained, 
and  it  was  six  months  before  he  recovered. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  GREAT  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO 

"The  region  of  which  I  speak  is  a  dreary  region  in 
Libya,  by  the  borders  of  the  river  Zaire.  And  there  is  no 
quiet  there  nor  silence.  The  waters  of  the  river  have  a 
saffron  hue,  and  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of  the  river's 
oozy  bed  is  a  pale  desert  of  gigantic  water-lilies  .  .  .  and 
I  stood  in  the  morass  among  the  tall  lilies  and  the  lilies 
sighed  one  unto  the  other  in  the  solemnity  of  their  desola- 
tion. And  all  at  once  the  moon  arose  through  the  thin 
ghastly  mist,  and  was  crimson  in  color.  .  .  .  And  the  man 
looked  out  upon  the  dreary  river  Zaire,  and  upon  the 
yellow  ghastly  waters,  and  upon  the  pale  legions  of  the 
water-lilies.  .  .  .  Then  I  went  down  into  the  recess  of 
the  morass,  and  waded  afar  in  among  the  wilderness  of 
the  lilies,  and  called  unto  the  hippopotami  which  dwelt 
among  the  fens  in  the  recesses  of  the  morass."  I  was  read- 
ing Poe,  on  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Nile;  and  surely  his 
*' fable"  does  deserve  to  rank  with  the  "tales  in  the  volumes 
of  the  Magi — in  the  ironbound,  melancholy  volumes  of 
the  Magi." 

We  had  come  down  through  the  second  of  the  great 
Nyanza  lakes.  As  we  sailed  northward,  its  waters  stretched 
behind  us  beyond  the  ken  of  vision,  to  where  they  were 
fed  by  streams  from  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon.  On  our 
left  hand  rose  the  frowning  ranges  on  the  other  side  of  which 
the  Congo  forest  lies  like  a  shroud  over  the  land.  On  our 
right  we  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Victorian  Nile,  alive  with 
monstrous  crocodiles,  and  its  banks  barren  of  human  life  be- 
cause of  the  swarms  of  the  fly  whose  bite  brings  the  torment 
which  ends  in  death.  As  night  fell  we  entered  the  White 
Nile,  and  steamed  and  drifted  down  the  mighty  stream. 

454 


The  "  white  "  rhino 
Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin  from  photographs  and  from  descriptions  lurnished  by  Mr,  Roosevelt 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  457 

Its  current  swirled  in  long  curves  between  endless  ranks  of 
plumed  papyrus.  White  and  blue  and  red,  the  floating 
water-Hlies  covered  the  lagoons  and  the  still  inlets  among 
the  reeds;  and  here  and  there  the  lotus  lifted  its  leaves 
and  flowers  stifily  above  the  surface.  The  brilliant  tropic 
stars  made  lanes  of  light  on  the  lapping  water  as  we  ran  on 
through  the  night.  The  river  horses  roared  from  the  reed- 
beds,  and  snorted  and  plunged  beside  the  boat,  and  croco- 
diles slipped  sullenly  into  the  river  as  we  glided  by.  Tow- 
ard morning  a  mist  arose  and  through  it  the  crescent  of 
the  dying  moon  shone  red  and  lurid.  Then  the  sun  flamed 
aloft  and  soon  the  African  landscape,  vast,  lonely,  mysteri- 
ous, stretched  on  every  side  in  a  shimmering  glare  of  heat 
and  light;  and  ahead  of  us  the  great,  strange  river  went 
twisting  away  into  the  distance. 

At  midnight  we  had  stopped  at  the  station  of  Koba, 
where  we  were  warmly  received  by  the  district  commis- 
sioner, and  where  we  met  half  a  dozen  of  the  professional 
elephant  hunters,  who  for  the  most  part  make  their  money, 
at  hazard  of  their  lives,  by  poaching  ivory  in  the  Congo. 
They  are  a  hard-bit  set,  these  elephant  poachers;  there 
are  few  careers  more  adventurous,  or  fraught  with  more 
peril,  or  which  make  heavier  demands  upon  the  daring,  the 
endurance,  and  the  physical  hardihood  of  those  who  fol- 
low them.  Elephant  hunters  face  death  at  every  turn, 
from  fever,  from  the  assaults  of  warlike  native  tribes,  from 
their  conflicts  with  their  giant  quarry;  and  the  unending 
strain  on  their  health  and  strength  is  tremendous. 

At  noon  the  following  day  we  stopped  at  the  deserted 
station  of  Wadelai,  still  in  British  territory.  There  have 
been  outposts  of  white  mastery  on  the  Upper  Nile  for  many 
years,  but  some  of  them  are  now  abandoned,  for  as  yet 
there  has  been  no  successful  attempt  at  such  develop- 
ment of  the  region  as  would  alone  mean  permanency  of 
occupation.  The  natives  whom  we  saw  offered  a  sharp 
contrast  to  those  of  Uganda;  we  were  again  back  among 
wild  savages.     Near  the  landing  at  Wadelai  was  a  group  of 


458 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


thatched  huts  surrounded  by  a  fence;  there  were  small 
fields  of  mealies  and  beans,  cultivated  by  the  women, 
and  a  few  cattle  and  goats;  while  big  wicker-work  fish- 
traps  showed  that  the  river  also  offered  a  means  of  liveli- 
hood. Both  men  and  women  were  practically  naked; 
some  of  the  women  entirely  so  except  for  a  few  beads. 
Here  we  were  joined  by  an  elephant  hunter,  Quentin  Gro- 
gan,  who  was  to  show  us  the  haunts  of  the  great  square- 


Sail-boat  at  Wadelai  Landing 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Alien  Loring 


mouthed  rhinoceros,  the  so-called  white  rhinoceros,  of  the 
Lado,  the  only  kind  of  African  heavy  game  which  we 
had  not  yet  obtained.  We  were  allowed  to  hunt  in  the 
Lado,  owing  to  the  considerate  courtesy  of  the  Belgian 
Government,  for  which  I  was  sincerely  grateful. 

After  leaving  Wadelai  we  again  went  downstream.  The 
river  flowed  through  immense  beds  of  papyrus.  Beyond 
these  on  either  side  were  rolling  plains  gradually  rising 
in  the  distance  into  hills  or  low  mountains.  The  plains 
were  covered  with  high  grass,  dry  and  withered;    and  the 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE  LADO 


45d 


smoke  here  and  there  showed  that  the  natives,  according 
to  their  custom,  were  now  burning  it.  There  was  no  forest; 
but  scattered  over  the  plains  were  trees,  generally  thorns, 
but  other  kinds  also,  among  them  palms  and  euphorbias. 

The  following  morning,  forty-eight  hours  after  leaving 
Butiaba,  on  Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  we  disembarked  from 


Rhino  camp,  Lado  Enclave 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


the  little  flotilla  which  had  carried  us — a  crazy  little  steam 
launch,  two  sail-boats,  and  two  big  row-boats.  We  made 
our  camp  close  to  the  river's  edge,  on  the  Lado  side,  in  a 
thin  grove  of  scattered  thorn-trees.  The  grass  grew  rank 
and  tall  all  about  us.  Our  tents  were  pitched,  and  the  grass 
huts  of  the  porters  built,  on  a  kind  of  promontory,  the  main 
stream  running  past  one  side,  while  on  the  other  was  a 
bay.  The  nights  were  hot  and  the  days  burning:  the 
mosquitoes    came   with    darkness,  sometimes  necessitating 


460  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

our  putting  on  head  nets  and  gloves  in  the  evenings,  and 
they  would  have  made  sleep  impossible  if  we  had  not  had 
mosquito  biers.  Nevertheless  it  was  a  very  pleasant  camp, 
and  we  thoroughly  enjoyed  it.  It  was  a  wild,  lonely  coun- 
try, and  we  saw  no  human  beings  except  an  occasional 
party  of  naked  savages  armed  with  bows  and  poisoned 
arrows.  Game  was  plentiful,  and  a  hunter  always  enjoys  a 
permanent  camp  in  a  good  game  country;  for  while  the 
expedition  is  marching,  his  movements  must  largely  be 
regulated  by  those  of  the  safari,  whereas  at  a  permanent 
camp  he  is  foot-loose. 

There  was  an  abundance  of  animal  life,  big  and  little, 
about  our  camp.  In  the  reeds,  and  among  the  water- 
lilies  of  the  bay,  there  were  crocodiles,  monitor  lizards  six 
feet  long,  and  many  water  birds — herons,  flocks  of  beauti- 
ful white  egrets,  clamorous  spur-winged  plover,  sacred 
ibis,  noisy  purple  ibis,  saddle-billed  storks,  and  lily  trotters 
which  ran  lightly  over  the  lily  pads.  There  were  cormo- 
rants and  snake  birds.  Fish  eagles  screamed  as  they  circled 
around;  very  handsome  birds,  the  head,  neck,  tail,  breast, 
and  forepart  of  the  back  white,  the  rest  of  the  plumage  black 
and  rich  chestnut.  There  was  a  queer  little  eagle  owl  with 
inflamed  red  eyelids.  The  black  and  red  bulbuls  sang  noisily. 
There  were  many  kingfishers,  some  no  larger  than  chippy 
sparrows,  and  many  of  them  brilliantly  colored;  some  had, 
and  others  had  not,  the  regular  kingfisher  voice;  and  while 
some  dwelt  by  the  river  bank  and  caught  fish,  others  did  not 
come  near  the  water  and  lived  on  insects.  There  were  par- 
adise flycatchers  with  long,  wavy  white  tails;  and  olive-green 
pigeons  with  yellow  bellies.  Red-headed,  red-tailed  lizards 
ran  swiftly  up  and  down  the  trees.  The  most  extraordinary 
birds  were  the  nightjars;  the  cocks  carried  in  each  wing  one 
very  long,  waving  plume,  the  pliable  quill  being  twice  the 
length  of  the  bird's  body  and  tail,  and  bare  except  for  a  patch 
of  dark  feather  webbing  at  the  end.  The  two  big,  dark 
plume  tips  were  very  conspicuous,  trailing  behind  the  bird 
as  it  flew,  and  so  riveting  the  observer's  attention  as  to  make 


i|l^'^  'HS, 


462  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

the  bird  itself  almost  escape  notice.  When  seen  flying,  the 
first  impression  conveyed  was  of  two  large,  dark  moths  or 
butterflies  fluttering  rapidly  through  the  air;  it  was  with  a 
positive  effort  of  the  eye  that  I  fixed  the  actual  bird.  The 
big  slate  and  yellow  bats  were  more  interesting  still.  There 
were  several  kinds  of  bats  at  this  camp;  a  small  dark  kind 
that  appeared  only  when  night  had  fallen  and  flew  very  near 
the  ground  all  night  long,  and  a  somewhat  larger  one,  lighter 
beneath,  which  appeared  late  in  the  evening  and  flew  higher 
in  the  air.  Both  of  these  had  the  ordinary  bat  habits  of 
continuous,  swallow-like  flight.  But  the  habits  of  the 
slate  and  yellow  bats  were  utterly  different.  They  were 
very  abundant,  hanging  in  the  thinly  leaved  acacias  around 
the  tents,  and,  as  everywhere  else,  were  crepuscular,  indeed 
to  a  large  extent  actually  diurnal,  in  habit.  They  saw 
well  and  flew  well  by  daylight,  passing  the  time  hanging 
from  twigs.  They  became  active  before  sunset.  In  catching 
insects  they  behaved  not  like  swallows  but  like  flycatchers. 
Except  that  they  perched  upside  down  so  to  speak,  that  is, 
that  they  hung  from  the  twigs  instead  of  sitting  on  them, 
their  conduct  was  precisely  that  of  a  phcebe  bird  or  a  wood 
peewee.  Each  bat  hung  from  its  twig  until  it  espied  a 
passing  insect,  when  it  swooped  down  upon  it,  and  after 
a  short  flight  returned  with  its  booty  to  the  same  perch 
or  went  on  to  a  new  one  close  by;  and  it  kept  twitching 
its  long  ears  as  it  hung  head  downward  devouring  its  prey. 
There  were  no  native  villages  in  our  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, and  the  game  was  not  shy.  There  were  many 
buck:  waterbuck,  kob,  hartebeest,  bushbuck,  reedbuck, 
oribi,  and  duiker.  Every  day  or  two  Kermit  or  I  would 
shoot  a  buck  for  the  camp.  We  generally  went  out  together 
with  our  gun-bearers,  Kermit  striding  along  in  front,  with 
short  trousers  and  leggings,  his  knees  bare.  Sometimes  only 
one  of  us  would  go  out.  The  kob  and  waterbuck  were 
usually  found  in  bands,  and  were  perhaps  the  commonest 
of  all.  The  buck  seemed  to  have  no  settled  time  for  feed- 
ing.   Two  oribi  which  I  shot  were  feeding  right  in  the  open, 


THE  RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  463 

just  at  noon,  utterly  indifferent  to  the  heat.  There  were 
hippo  both  in  the  bay  and  in  the  river.  All  night  long 
we  could  hear  them  splashing,  snorting,  and  grunting; 
they  were  very  noisy,  sometimes  uttering  a  strange,  long- 
drawn  bellow,  a  little  like  the  exhaust  of  a  giant  steam- 
pipe,  once  or  twice  whinnying  or  neighing;  but  usually 
making  a  succession  of  grunts,  or  bubbling  squeals  through 
the  nostrils.    The  long  grass  was  traversed  in  all  directions 


yt-iL-         .'.p^J 


,.#^     -..i-'^'S'?^^ 


..^av-^ai».^*''t  \^fiffM:.:>^-^-ii--ji' 


Camp  in  the  Lado 
From  a  ^holograph  by  J.  Aldcn  Loring 

by  elephant  trails,  and  there  was  much  fresh  sign  of  the 
huge  beasts — their  dung,  and  the  wrecked  trees  on  which 
they  had  been  feeding;  and  there  was  sign  of  buffalo  also. 
In  middle  Africa,  thanks  to  wise  legislation,  and  to  the 
very  hmited  size  of  the  areas  open  to  true  settlement,  there 
has  been  no  such  reckless,  wholesale  slaughter  of  big  game 
as  that  which  has  brought  the  once  wonderful  big  game 
fauna  of  South  Africa  to  the  verge  of  extinction.  In  certain 
small  areas  of  middle  Africa,  of  course,  it  has  gone;  but 
as  a  whole  it  has  not  much  diminished,  some  species  have 
actually  increased,  and  none  is  in  danger  of  immediate 
extinction,  unless  it  be  the  white  rhinoceros.  During  the 
last  decade,  for  instance,  the  buffalo  have  been  recovering 


464  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

their  lost  ground  throughout  the  Lado,  Uganda,  and  British 
East  Africa,  having  mukiphed  many  times  over.  During 
the  same  period,  in  the  same  region,  the  elephant  have 
not  greatly  diminished  in  aggregate  numbers,  although  the 
number  of  bulls  carrying  big  ivory  has  been  very  much 
reduced;  indeed  the  reproductive  capacity  of  the  herds 
has  probably  been  very  little  impaired,  the  energies  of  the 
hunters  having  been  almost  exclusively  directed  to  the 
killing  of  the  bulls  with  tusks  weighing  over  thirty  pounds 
apiece;  and  the  really  big  tuskers,  which  are  most  eagerly 
sought  after,  are  almost  always  past  their  prime,  and  no 
longer  associate  with  the  herd. 

But  this  does  not  apply  to  the  great  beast  which  was 
the  object  of  our  coming  to  the  Lado,  the  square-mouthed, 
or,  as  it  is  sometimes  miscalled,  the  white,  rhinoceros. 
Africa  is  a  huge  continent,  and  many  species  of  the  big 
mammals  inhabiting  it  are  spread  over  a  vast  surface;  and 
some  of  them  offer  strange  problems  for  inquiry  in  the 
discontinuity  of  their  distribution.  The  most  extraordi- 
nary instance  of  this  discontinuity  is  that  offered  by  the 
distribution  of  the  square-m.outhed  rhinoceros.  It  is  almost 
as  if  our  bison  had  never  been  known  within  historic  times 
except  in  Texas  and  Ecuador.  This  great  rhinoceros  was 
formerly  plentiful  in  South  Africa  south  of  the  Zambesi, 
where  it  has  been  completely  exterminated  except  for  a 
score  or  so  of  individuals  on  a  game  reserve.  North  of  the 
Zambesi  it  was  and  is  utterly  unknown,  save  that  during 
the  last  ten  years  it  has  been  found  to  exist  in  several  local- 
ities on  the  left  bank  of  the  Upper  Nile,  close  to  the  river, 
and  covering  a  north  and  south  extension  of  about  two  hun- 
dred miles.  Even  in  this  narrow  ribbon  of  territory  the 
square-mouthed  rhinoceros  is  found  only  in  certain  locali- 
ties, and  although  there  has  not  hitherto  been  much  slaugh- 
ter of  the  mighty  beast,  it  would  certainly  be  well  if  all 
killing  of  it  were  prohibited  until  careful  inquiry  has  been 
made  as  to  its  numbers  and  exact  distribution.  It  is  a  curi- 
ous animal,  on  the  average  distinctly  larger  than,  and  utterly 


THE  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE   LADO 


465 


different  from,  the  ordinary  African  rhinoceros.  The  spinal 
processes  of  the  dorsal  vertebrae  are  so  developed  as  to  make 
a  very  prominent  hump  over  the  withers,  while  forward  of 
this  is  a  still  higher  and  more  prominent  fleshy  hump  on  the 
neck.    The  huge,  misshapen  head  differs  in  all  respects  as 


Veldt  pool,  rhino  camp 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 

widely  from  the  head  of  the  common  or  so-called  black  rhi- 
noceros as  the  head  of  a  moose  differs  from  that  of  a  wapiti. 
The  morning  after  making  camp  we  started  on  a  rhi- 
noceros hunt.  At  this  time  in  this  neighborhood,  the  rhi- 
noceros seemed  to  spend  the  heat  of  the  day  in  sleep,  and 
to  feed  in  the  morning  and  evening,  and  perhaps  through- 
out the  night;  and  to  drink  in  the  evening  and  morning, 
usually  at  some  bay  or  inlet  of  the  river.  In  the  morning 
they  walked  away  from  the  water  for  an  hour  or  two,  until 
they  came  to  a  place  which  suited  them  for  the  day's  sleep. 
Unlike  the  ordinary  rhinoceros,  the  square-mouthed  rhi- 
noceros feeds  exclusively  on  grass.  Its  dung  is  very  differ- 
ent; we  only  occasionally  saw  it  deposited  in  heaps,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  its  more  common  cousin.     The 

30 


466  AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

big,  sluggish  beast  seems  fond  of  nosing  the  ant-hills  of  red 
earth,  both  with  its  horn  and  with  its  square  muzzle;  it 
may  be  that  it  licks  them  for  some  saline  substance.  It 
is  apparently  of  less  solitary  nature  than  the  prehensile- 
lipped  rhino,  frequently  going  in  parties  of  four  or  five 
or  half  a  dozen  individuals. 

We  did  not  get  an  early  start.  Hour  after  hour  we 
plodded  on,  under  the  burning  sun,  through  the  tall,  tangled 
grass,  which  was  often  higher  than  our  heads.  Continu- 
ally we  crossed  the  trails  of  elephant  and  more  rarely  of 
rhinoceros,  but  the  hard,  sun-baked  earth  and  stiff,  tinder- 
dry  long  grass  made  it  a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty  to  tell 
if  a  trail  was  fresh,  or  to  follow  it.  Finally,  Kermit  and 
his  gun-bearer,  Kassitura,  discovered  some  unquestionably 
fresh  footprints  which  those  of  us  who  were  in  front  had 
passed  over.  Immediately  we  took  the  trail,  Kongoni  and 
Kassitura  acting  as  trackers,  while  Kermit  and  I  followed 
at  their  heels.  Once  or  twice  the  two  trackers  were  puz- 
zled, but  they  were  never  entirely  at  fault;  and  after  half 
an  hour  Kassitura  suddenly  pointed  toward  a  thorn-tree 
about  sixty  yards  off.  Mounting  a  low  ant-hill  I  saw 
rather  dimly  through  the  long  grass  a  big  gray  bulk,  near 
the  foot  of  the  tree;  it  was  a  rhinoceros  lying  asleep  on  its 
side,  looking  like  an  enormous  pig.  It  heard  something 
and  raised  itself  on  its  forelegs,  in  a  sitting  posture,  the 
big  ears  thrown  forward.  I  fired  for  the  chest,  and  the 
heavy  Holland  bullet  knocked  it  clean  off  its  feet.  Squeal- 
ing loudly  it  rose  again,  but  it  was  clearly  done  for,  and 
it  never  got  ten  yards  from  where  it  had  been  lying. 

At  the  shot  four  other  rhino  rose.  One  bolted  to  the 
right,  two  others  ran  to  the  left.  Firing  through  the  grass 
Kermit  wounded  a  bull  and  followed  it  for  a  long  distance, 
but  could  not  overtake  it;  ten  days  later,*  however,  he 
found  the  carcass,  and  saved  the  skull  and  horns.  Mean- 
while I  killed  a  calf,  which  was  needed  for  the  museum; 

*  Kermit  on  this  occasion  was  using  the  double-barrelled  rifle  which  had  been 
most  kindly  lent  him  for  the  trip  by  Mr.  John  Jay  White,  of  New  York. 


THE   RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO  467 

the  rhino  I  had  already  shot  was  a  full-grown  cow,  doubtless 
the  calf's  mother.  As  the  rhino  rose  I  was  struck  by  their 
likeness  to  the  picture  of  the  white  rhino  in  Cornwallis 
Harris's  folio  of  the  big  game  of  South  Africa  seventy  years 
ago.  They  were  totally  different  in  look  from  the  com- 
mon rhino,  seeming  to  stand  higher  and  to  be  shorter  in 
proportion  to  their  height,  while  the  hump  and  the  huge, 
ungainly,  square-mouthed  head  added  to  the  dissimilar- 
ity. The  common  rhino  is  in  color  a  very  dark  slate  gray; 
these  were  a  rather  lighter  slate  gray;  but  this  was  proba- 
bly a  mere  individual  peculiarity,  for  the  best  observers 
say  that  they  are  of  the  same  hue.  The  muzzle  is  broad 
and  square,  and  the  upper  lip  without  a  vestige  of  the 
curved,  prehensile  development  which  makes  the  upper  lip 
of  a  common  rhino  look  like  the  hook  of  a  turtle's  beak. 
The  stomachs  contained  nothing  but  grass;  it  is  a  grazing, 
not  a  browsing  animal. 

There  were  some  white  egrets — not,  as  is  usually  the 
case  with  both  rhinos  and  elephants,  the  cow-heron,  but 
the  slender,  black-legged,  yellow-toed  egret — on  the  rhinos, 
and  the  bodies  and  heads  of  both  the  cow  and  calf  looked 
as  though  they  had  been  splashed  with  streaks  of  white- 
wash. One  of  the  egrets  returned  after  the  shooting  and 
perched  on  the  dead  body  of  the  calf. 

The  heat  was  intense,  and  our  gun-bearers  at  once 
began  skinning  the  animals,  lest  they  should  spoil;  and 
that  afternoon  Cuninghame  and  Heller  came  out  from 
camp  with  tents,  food,  and  water,  and  Heller  cared  for 
the  skins  on  the  spot,  taking  thirty-six  hours  for  the  job. 
The  second  night  he  was  visited  by  a  party  of  lions,  which 
were  after  the  rhinoceros  meat  and  came  within  fifteen 
feet  of  the  tents. 

On  the  same  night  that  Heller  was  visited  by  the  lions 
we  had  to  fight  fire  in  the  main  camp.  At  noon  we  noticed 
two  fires  come  toward  us,  and  could  soon  hear  their  roar- 
ing. The  tall,  thick  grass  was  like  tinder;  and  if  we  let  the 
fires  reach  camp  we  were  certain  to  lose  everything  we  had. 


468  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

So  Loring,  Mearns,  Kermit,  and  I,  who  were  in  camp,  got 
out  the  porters  and  cut  a  lane  around  our  tents  and  goods; 
and  then  started  a  back  fire,  section  after  section,  from  the 
other  side  of  this  lane.  We  kept  every  one  ready,  with 
branches  and  wet  gunny-sacks,  and  lit  each  section  in  turn, 
so  that  we  could  readily  beat  out  the  flames  at  any  point 
where  they  threatened.  The  air  was  still,  and  soon  after 
nightfall  our  back  fire  had  burnt  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards 
away  from  camp,  and  the  danger  was  practically  over. 
Shortly  afterward  one  of  the  fires  against  which  we  were 
guarding  came  over  a  low  hill-crest  into  view,  beyond  the 
line  of  our  back  fire.  It  was  a  fine  sight  to  see  the  long  line 
of  leaping,  wavering  flames  advance  toward  one  another. 
An  hour  or  two  passed  before  they  met,  half  a  mile  from 
camp.  Wherever  they  came  together  there  would  be  a 
moment's  spurt  of  roaring,  crackling  fire,  and  then  it  would 
vanish,  leaving  at  that  point  a  blank  in  the  circle  of  flame. 
Gradually  the  blanks  in  the  lines  extended,  until  the  fire 
thus  burnt  itself  out,  and  darkness  succeeded  the  bright 
red  glare. 

The  fires  continued  to  burn  in  our  neighborhood  for  a 
couple  of  days.  Finally  one  evening  the  great  beds  of 
papyrus  across  the  bay  caught  fire.  After  nightfall  it  was 
splendid  to  see  the  line  of  flames,  leaping  fifty  feet  into  the 
air  as  they  worked  across  the  serried  masses  of  tall  papy- 
rus. When  they  came  toward  the  water  they  kindled  the 
surface  of  the  bay  into  a  ruddy  glare,  while  above  them  the 
crimson  smoke  clouds  drifted  slowly  to  leeward.  The  fire 
did  not  die  out  until  toward  morning;  and  then,  behind  it, 
we  heard  the  grand  booming  chorus  of  a  party  of  lions. 
They  were  full  fed,  and  roaring  as  they  went  to  their  day 
beds;  each  would  utter  a  succession  of  roars  which  grew 
louder  and  louder  until  they  fairly  thundered,  and  then 
died  gradually  away,  until  they  ended  in  a  succession  of 
sighs  and  grunts. 

As  the  fires  burned  to  and  fro  across  the  country  birds  of 
many  kinds  came  to  the  edge  of  the  flames  to  pick  up  the 


H    ^ 


470  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

insects  which  were  driven  out.  There  were  marabou 
storks,  kites,  hawks,  ground  hornbills,  and  flocks  of  beau- 
tiful egrets  and  cow-herons,  which  stalked  sedately  through 
the  grass,  and  now  and  then  turned  a  small  tree  nearly 
white  by  all  perching  in  it.  The  little  bank  swallows  came 
in  myriads;  exactly  the  same,  by  the  way,  as  our  familiar 
home  friends,  for  the  bank  swallow  is  the  most  widely 
distributed  of  all  birds.  The  most  conspicuous  attend- 
ants of  the  fires,  however,  were  the  bee-eaters,  the  largest 
and  handsomest  we  had  yet  seen,  their  plumage  every 
shade  of  blended  red  and  rose,  varied  with  brilliant  blue 
and  green.  The  fires  seemed  to  bother  the  bigger  animals 
hardly  at  all.  The  game  did  not  shift  their  haunts,  or  do 
more  than  move  in  quite  leisurely  fashion  out  of  the  line  of 
advance  of  the  flames.  I  saw  two  oribi  which  had  found  a 
patch  of  short  grass  that  split  the  fire,  feeding  thereon, 
entirely  undisturbed,  although  the  flames  were  crackling 
by  some  fifty  yards  on  each  side  of  them.  Even  the  mice 
and  shrews  did  not  suffer  much,  probably  because  they 
went  into  holes.  Shrews,  by  the  way,  were  very  plentiful, 
and  Loring  trapped  four  kinds,  two  of  them  new.  It  was 
always  a  surprise  to  me  to  find  these  tiny  shrews  swarming 
in  Equatorial  Africa  just  as  they  swarm  in  Arctic  America. 

In  a  little  patch  of  country  not  far  from  this  camp  there 
were  a  few  sleeping-sickness  fly,  and  one  or  two  of  us  were 
bitten,  but,  seemingly,  the  fly  were  not  infected,  although 
at  this  very  time  eight  men  were  dying  of  sleeping  sickness 
at  Wadelai  where  we  had  stopped.  There  were  also  some 
ordinary  tsetse  fly,  which  caused  us  uneasiness  about  our 
mule.  We  had  brought  four  little  males  through  Uganda, 
riding  them  occasionally  on  safari;  and  had  taken  one 
across  into  the  Lado,  while  the  other  three,  with  the  bulk 
of  the  porters,  marched  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Nile 
from  Koba,  and  were  to  join  us  at  Nimule. 

It  was  Kermit's  turn  for  the  next  rhino;  and  by  good 
luck  it  was  a  bull,  giving  us  a  complete  group  of  bull,  cow, 
and  calf  for  the  National  Museum.     We  got  it  as  we  had 


THE  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO  471 

gotten  our  first  two.  Marching  through  hkely  country — 
burnt,  this  time — we  came  across  the  tracks  of  three  rhino, 
two  big  and  one  small,  and  followed  them  through  the 
black  ashes.  It  was  an  intricate  and  difficult  piece  of 
tracking,  for  the  trail  wound  hither  and  thither  and  was 
criss-crossed  by  others;  but  Kongoni  and  Kassitura  grad- 
ually untangled  the  maze,  found  where  the  beasts  had 
drunk  at  a  small  pool  that  morning,  and  then  led  us  to 
where  they  were  lying  asleep  under  some  thorn-trees.  It 
was  about  eleven  o'clock.  As  the  bull  rose  Kermit  gave 
him  a  fatal  shot  with  his  beloved  Winchester.  He  gal- 
loped full  speed  toward  us,  not  charging,  but  in  a  mad 
panic  of  terror  and  bewilderment;  and  with  a  bullet  from 
the  Holland  I  brought  him  down  in  his  tracks  only  a  few 
yards  away.  The  cow  went  off  at  a  gallop.  The  calf, 
a  big  creature,  half  grown,  hung  about  for  some  time,  and 
came  up  quite  close,  but  was  finally  frightened  away  by 
shouting  and  hand-clapping.  Some  cow-herons  were 
round  these  rhino;  and  the  head  and  body  of  the  bull 
looked  as  if  it  had  been  splashed  with  whitewash. 

It  was  an  old  bull,  with  a  short,  stubby,  worn-down 
horn.  It  was  probably  no  heavier  than  a  big  ordinary 
rhino  bull  such  as  we  had  shot  on  the  Sotik,  and  its  horns 
were  no  larger,  and  the  front  and  rear  ones  were  of  the 
same  proportions  relatively  to  each  other.  But  the  mis- 
shapen head  was  much  larger,  and  the  height  seemed 
greater  because  of  the  curious  hump.  This  fleshy  hump 
is  not  over  the  high  dorsal  vertebrae,  but  just  forward  of 
them,  on  the  neck  itself,  and  has  no  connection  with  the 
spinal  column.  The  square-mouthed  rhinoceros  of  South 
Africa  is  always  described  as  being  very  much  bigger  than 
the  common  prehensile-lipped  African  rhinoceros,  and  as 
carrying  much  longer  horns.  But  the  square-mouthed 
rhinos  we  saw  and  killed  in  the  Lado  did  not  differ  from 
the  common  kind  in  size  and  horn  development  as  much 
as  we  had  been  led  to  expect;  although  on  an  average  they 
were  undoubtedly  larger,  and  with  bigger  horns,  yet  there 


472 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


Cow  square-nosed  rhino  of  the  Lado,  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


was  in  both  respects  overlapping,  the  bigger  prehensile- 
npped  rhinos  equaUing  or  surpassing  the  smaller  individuals 
of  the  other  kind.     The  huge,  square-muzzled  head,  and 

the  hump,  gave 
the  Lado  rhino 
an  utterly  dif- 
ferent look,  how- 
ever,  and  its 
habits  are  also 
in  some  impor- 
tant respects  dif- 
ferent. Our  gun- 
bearers  were  all 
East  Africans, 
who  had  never 
before  been  in 
the  Lado.  They 
had  been  very 
sceptical  when 
told  that  the 
rhinos  were  dif- 
ferent  from 
those  they  knew, 
remarking  that 
"all  rhinos  were 
the  same";  and 
the  first  sight  of 
the  spoor  merely 
confirmed  them 
in  their  belief; 
but  they  at  once 
recognized  the 
dung  as  being 
down  they  exam- 
rhinoceros  with  a 
with  the  mouth  of 


Rhino  of  the  usual  type,  with   prehensile  lip,  shot  on  the 
Sotik  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 

The  differences  of  the  two  types  are  shown  in  the  above  photographs 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

different;    and  when  the  first  animal  was 
ined  it  eagerly  and   proclaimed   it  as  a 
hump,  like  their  own  native  cattle,  and 
a  hippopotamus. 


THE  RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  473 

On  the  way  to  camp,  after  the  death  of  this  bull  rhino, 
I  shot  a  waterbuck  bull  with  finer  horns  than  any  I  had  yet 
obtained.  Herds  of  waterbuck  and  of  kob  stared  tamely 
at  me  as  I  walked  along;  whereas  a  little  party  of  harte- 
beest  were  wild  and  shy.  On  other  occasions  I  have 
seen  this  conduct  exactly  reversed,  the  hartebeest  being 
tame,  and  the  waterbuck  and  kob  shy.  Heller,  as  usual, 
came  out  and  camped  by  this  rhino,  to  handle  the  skin  and 
skeleton.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  a  leopard  got  caught 
in  one  of  his  small  steel  traps,  which  he  had  set  out  with 
a  light  drag.  The  beast  made  a  terrific  row  and  went 
off  with  the  trap  and  drag.  It  was  only  caught  by  one 
toe;  a  hyena  similarly  caught  would  have  wrenched  itself 
loose;  but  the  leopard,  though  a  far  braver  and  more  dan- 
gerous beast,  has  less  fortitude  under  pain  than  a  hyena. 
Heller  tracked  it  up  in  the  morning,  and  shot  it  as,  ham- 
pered by  the  trap  and  drag,  it  charged  the  porters. 

On  the  ashes  of  the  fresh  burn  the  footprints  of  the 
game  showed  almost  as  distinctly  as  on  snow.  One  morn- 
ing we  saw  where  a  herd  of  elephant,  cows  and  calves, 
had  come  down  the  night  before  to  drink  at  a  big  bay  of 
the  Nile,  three  or  four  miles  north  of  our  camp.  Numerous 
hippo  tracks  showed  that  during  the  darkness  these  beasts 
wandered  freely  a  mile  or  two  inland.  They  often  wan- 
dered back  of  our  camp  at  night.  Always  beside  these  night 
trails  we  found  withered  remnants  of  water  cabbage  and 
other  aquatic  plants  which  they  had  carried  inland  with 
them;  I  suppose  accidentally  on  their  backs.  On  several 
occasions  where  we  could  only  make  out  scrapes  on  the 
ground  the  hippo  trails  puzzled  us,  being  so  far  inland  that 
we  thought  they  might  be  those  of  rhinos;  until  we  would 
come  on  some  patch  of  ashes  or  of  soft  soil  where  we  could 
trace  the  four  toe  marks.  The  rhino  has  but  three  toes,  the 
one  in  the  middle  being  very  big;  it  belongs,  with  the 
tapir  and  horse,  to  the  group  of  ungulates  which  tends  to 
develop  one  digit  of  each  foot  at  the  expense  of  all  the 
others;  a  group  which  in  a  long-past  geological  age  was  the 


474  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

predominant  ungulate  group  of  the  world.  The  hippo, 
on  the  contrary,  belongs  with  such  cloven-hoofed  creatures 
as  the  cow  and  pig,  in  the  group  of  ungulates  which  has 
developed  equally  two  main  digits  in  each  foot;  a  group 
much  more  numerously  represented  than  the  other  in  the 
world  of  to-day. 

As  the  hippos  grew  familiar  with  the  camp  they  became 
bolder  and  more  venturesome  after  nightfall.  They  grunted 
and  brayed  to  one  another  throughout  the  night,  splashed 
and  wallowed  among  the  reeds,  and  came  close  to  the  tents 
during  their  dry-land  rambles  in  the  darkness.  One  night, 
in  addition  to  the  hippo  chorus,  we  heard  the  roaring  of 
lions  and  the  trumpeting  of  elephants.  We  were  indeed 
in  the  heart  of  the  African  wilderness. 

Early  in  the  morning  after  this  concert  we  started  for 
a  day's  rhino  hunt.  Heller  and  Cuninghame  having  just 
finished  the  preparation,  and  transport  to  camp,  of  the 
skin  of  Kermit's  bull.  Loring,  who  had  not  hitherto  seen 
either  elephant  or  rhino  alive,  went  with  us;  and  by  good 
luck  he  saw  both. 

A  couple  of  miles  from  camp  we  were  crossing  a  wide, 
flat,  swampy  valley  in  which  the  coarse  grass  grew  as  tall 
as  our  heads.  Here  and  there  were  kob,  which  leaped  up 
on  the  ant-hills  to  get  a  clear  view  of  us.  Suddenly  our 
attention  was  attracted  by  the  movements  of  a  big  flock 
of  cow-herons  in  front  of  us,  and  then  watching  sharply  we 
caught  a  glimpse  of  some  elephants,  about  four  hundred 
yards  off.  We  now  climbed  an  ant-hill  ourselves,  and  in- 
spected the  elephants,  to  see  if  among  them  were  any  big- 
tusked  bulls.  There  were  no  bulls,  however;  the  little  herd 
consisted  of  five  cows  and  four  calves,  which  were  march- 
ing across  a  patch  of  burnt  ground  ahead  of  us,  accom- 
panied by  about  fifty  white  cow-herons.  We  stood  where 
we  were  until  they  had  passed;  we  did  not  wish  to  get  too 
close,  lest  they  might  charge  us  and  force  us  to  shoot  in 
self-defence.  They  walked  in  unhurried  confidence,  and 
yet  were  watchful,  continually  cocking  their  ears  and  rais- 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  475 

ing  and  curling  their  trunks.  One  dropped  behind  and 
looked  fixedly  in  our  direction,  probably  having  heard  us 
talking;  then  with  head  aloft  and  tail  stiffly  erect  it  has- 
tened after  the  others,  presenting  an  absurd  likeness  to  a 
baboon.  The  four  calves  played  friskily  about,  especially 
a  very  comical  little  pink  fellow  which  accompanied  the 
leading  cow.  Meanwhile  a  few  of  the  white  herons  rode  on 
their  backs,  but  most  of  the  flock,  stalked  sedately  along- 
side through  the  burnt  grass,  catching  the  grasshoppers 
which  were  disturbed  by  the  great  feet.  When,  however, 
the  herd  reached  the  tall  grass  all  the  herons  flew  up  and 
perched  on  the  backs  and  heads  of  their  friends;  even 
the  pink  calf  carried  one.  Half  a  mile  inside  the  edge  of 
the  tall  grass  the  elephants  stopped  for  the  day  beside  a 
clump  of  bushes;  and  there  they  stood,  the  white  birds 
clustered  on  their  dark  bodies.  At  the  time  we  could  dis- 
tinctly hear  the  Doctor's  shot-gun,  as  he  collected  birds 
near  camp;  the  reports  did  not  disturb  the  elephants,  and 
when  we  walked  on  we  left  them  standing  unconcernedly 
in  the  grass. 

A  couple  of  hours  later,  as  we  follovv^ed  an  elephant 
path,  we  came  to  where  it  was  crossed  by  the  spoor  of  two 
rhino.  Our  gun-bearers  took  up  the  trail,  over  the  burnt 
ground,  while  Kermit  and  I  followed  immediately  behind 
them.  The  trail  wound  about,  and  was  not  always  easy 
to  disentangle,  but  after  a  mile  or  two  we  saw  the  beasts. 
They  were  standing  among  bushes  and  patches  of  rank, 
unburned  grass;  it  was  just  ten  o'clock,  and  they  were 
evidently  preparing  to  lie  down  for  the  day.  As  they  stood 
they  kept  twitching  their  big  ears;  both  rhino  and  ele- 
phant are  perpetually  annoyed,  as  are  most  game,  by  biting 
flies,  large  and  small.  We  got  up  very  close,  Kermit  with 
his  camera  and  I  with  the  heavy  rifle.  Too  little  is  known 
of  these  northern  square-mouthed  rhino  for  us  to  be  sure 
that  they  are  not  lingering  slowly  toward  extinction;  and, 
lest  this  should  be  the  case,  we  were  not  willing  to  kill  any 
merely  for  trophies;   while,  on  the  other  hand,  we  deemed  it 


476  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

really  important  to  get  good  groups  for  the  National  Mu- 
seum in  Washington  and  the  American  Museum  in  New 
York,  and  a  head  for  the  National  Collection  of  Heads  and 
Horns  which  was  started  by  Mr.  Hornaday,  the  director  of 
the  Bronx  Zoological  Park.  Moreover  Kermit  and  Loring 
desired  to  get  some  photos  of  the  animals  while  they  were 
alive. 

Things  did  not  go  well  this  time,  however.  The  rhinos 
saw  us  before  either  Kermit  or  Loring  could  get  a  good 
picture.  As  they  wheeled  I  fired  hastily  into  the  chest  of 
one,  but  not  quite  in  the  middle,  and  away  they  dashed — 
for  they  do  not  seem  as  truculent  as  the  common  rhino. 
We  followed  them.  After  an  hour  the  trails  separated; 
Cuninghame  went  on  one,  but  failed  to  overtake  the  ani- 
mal, and  we  did  not  see  him  until  we  reached  camp  late 
that  afternoon. 

Meanwhile  our  own  gun-bearers  followed  the  bloody 
spoor  of  the  rhino  I  had  hit,  Kermit  and  I  close  behind, 
and  Loring  with  us.  The  rhino  had  gone  straight  off  at  a 
gallop,  and  the  trail  offered  little  difficulty,  so  we  walked 
fast.  A  couple  of  hours  passed.  The  sun  was  now  high 
and  the  heat  intense  as  we  walked  over  the  burned  ground. 
The  scattered  trees  bore  such  scanty  foliage  as  to  cast 
hardly  any  shade.  The  rhino  galloped  strongly  and  with- 
out faltering;  but  there  was  a  good  deal  of  blood  on  the 
trail.  At  last,  after  we  had  gone  seven  or  eight  miles, 
Kiboko  the  skinner,  who  was  acting  as  my  gun-bearer, 
pointed  toward  a  small  thorn-tree;  and  beside  it  I  saw 
the  rhino  standing  with  drooping  head.  It  had  been 
fatally  hit,  and  if  undisturbed  would  probably  never  have 
moved  from  where  it  was  standing;  and  we  finished  it 
off  forthwith.  It  was  a  cow,  and  before  dying  it  ran 
round  and  round  in  a  circle,  in  the  manner  of  the  common 
rhino. 

Loring  stayed  to  superintend  the  skinning  and  bring- 
ing in  of  the  head  and  feet,  and  slabs  of  hide.  Mean- 
while Kermit  and  I,  with  our  gun-bearers,  went  off  with  a 


478  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

*'shenzi,"  a  wild  native  who  had  just  come  in  with  the  news 
that  he  knew  where  another  rhino  was  lying,  a  few  miles 
away.  While  bound  thither  we  passed  numbers  of  oribi, 
and  went  close  to  a  herd  of  waterbuck  which  stared  at  us 
with  stupid  tameness;  a  single  hartebeest  was  with  them. 
When  we  reached  the  spot  there  was  the  rhino,  sure  enough, 
under  a  little  tree,  sleeping  on  his  belly,  his  legs  doubled 
up,  and  his  head  flat  on  the  ground.  Unfortunately  the 
grass  was  long,  so  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  photo- 
graph him.  However,  Kermit  tried  to  get  his  picture  from 
an  ant-hill  fifty  yards  distant,  and  then,  Kermit  with  his 
camera  and  I  with  my  rifle,  we  walked  up  to  within  about 
twenty  yards.  At  this  point  we  halted^  and  on  the  instant 
the  rhino  jumped  to  his  feet  with  surprising  agility  and 
trotted  a  few  yards  out  from  under  the  tree.  It  was  a  huge 
bull,  with  a  fair  horn;  much  the  biggest  bull  we  had  yet 
seen;  and  with  head  up  and  action  high,  the  sun  glinting 
on  his  slate  hide  and  bringing  out  his  enormous  bulk,  he 
was  indeed  a  fine  sight.  I  waited  a  moment  for  Kermit 
to  snap  him.  Unfortunately  the  waving  grass  spoiled  the 
picture.  Then  I  fired  right  and  left  into  his  body,  behind 
the  shoulders,  and  down  he  went.  In  color  he  seemed 
of  exactly  the  same  shade  as  the  common  rhino,  but  he 
was  taller  and  heavier,  being  six  feet  high.  He  carried  a 
stout  horn,  a  little  over  two  feet  long;  the  girth  at  the  base 
was  very  great. 

Leaving  the  gun-bearers  (with  all  our  water)  to  skin  the 
mighty  beast,  Kermit  and  I  started  for  camp;  and  as  we 
were  rather  late  Kermit  struck  out  at  a  great  pace  in  front, 
while  I  followed  on  the  little  ambling  mule.  On  our  way 
in  we  passed  the  elephants,  still  standing  where  we  had 
left  them  in  the  morning,  with  the  white  cow-herons  flying 
and  walking  around  and  over  them.  Heller  and  Cun- 
inghame  at  once  went  out  to  camp  by  the  skin  and  take 
care  of  it,  and  to  bring  back  the  skeleton.  We  had  been 
out  about  eleven  hours  without  food;  we  were  very  dirty 
from  the  ashes  on  the  burnt  ground;    we  had  triumphed; 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  479 

and  we  were  thoroughly  happy  as  we  took  our  baths  and 
ate  our  hearty  dinner. 

It  was  amusing  to  look  at  our  three  naturalists  and 
compare  them  with  the  conventional  pictures  of  men  of 
science  and  learning — especially  men  of  science  and  learn- 
ing in  the  wilderness — drawn  by  the  novelists  a  century 
ago.  Nowadays  the  field  naturalist — who  is  usually  at  all 
points  superior  to  the  mere  closet  naturalist — follows  a  pro- 
fession as  full  of  hazard  and  interest  as  that  of  the  explorer 


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Marabous  and  vultures.     The  undertakers 
Frotn  a  photograph  by  J.  Alien  Loring 

or  of  the  big-game  hunter  in  the  remote  wilderness.  He 
penetrates  to  all  the  out-of-the-way  nooks  and  corners  of 
the  earth;  he  is  schooled  to  the  performance  of  very  hard 
work,  to  the  endurance  of  fatigue  and  hardship,  to  en- 
countering all  kinds  of  risks,  and  to  grappling  with  every 
conceivable  emergency.  In  consequence  he  is  exceedingly 
competent,  resourceful,  and  self-reliant,  and  the  man  of  all 
others  to  trust  in  a  tight  place. 

Around  this  camp  there  were  no  ravens  or  crows;  but 
multitudes  of  kites,  almost  as  tame  as  sparrows,  circled 
among  the  tents,  uttering  their  wailing  cries,  and  lit  on  the 


480  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

little  trees  near  by  or  waddled  about  on  the  ground  near 
the  cook  fires.  Numerous  vultures,  many  marabou  storks, 
and  a  single  fish  eagle,  came  to  the  carcasses  set  for  them 
outside  the  camp  by  Loring;  and  he  took  pictures  of  them. 
The  handsome  fish  eagle  looked  altogether  out  of  place 
among  the  foul  carrion-feeding  throng;  on  the  ground  the 
vultures  made  way  for  him  respectfully  enough,  but  they 
resented  his  presence,  and  now  and  then  two  or  three 
would  unite  to  mob  him  while  on  the  wing. 

We  wished  for  another  cow  rhino,  so  as  to  have  a  bull 
and  a  cow  both  for  the  National  Museum  at  Washington, 
and  for  the  American  Museum  in  New  York;  and  Kermit 
was  to  shoot  this.  Accordingly  he  and  I  started  off  early 
one  morning  with  Grogan — a  man  of  about  twenty-five, 
a  good  hunter  and  a  capital  fellow,  with  whom  by  this 
time  we  were  great  friends.  It  was  much  like  our  other 
hunts.  W^e  tramped  through  high  grass  across  a  big, 
swampy  plain  or  broad  valley  between  low  rises  of  ground, 
until,  on  the  opposite  side,  we  struck  a  by-this-time  familiar 
landmark,  two  tall  royal  palms,  the  only  ones  for  some 
miles  around.  Here  we  turned  into  a  broad  elephant  and 
rhinoceros  path,  worn  deep  and  smooth  by  the  genera- 
tions of  huge  feet  that  had  tramped  it;  for  it  led  from  the 
dry  inland  to  a  favorite  drinking-place  on  the  Nile.  Along 
this  we  walked  until  Kassitura  made  out  the  trail  of  two 
rhino  crossing  it  at  right  angles.  They  were  evidently 
feeding  and  seeking  a  noonday  resting-place;  in  this  coun- 
try the  square-mouthed  rhinoceros  live  on  the  grassy  flats, 
sparsely  covered  with  small  thorn-trees,  and  only  go  into 
the  high  reeds  on  their  way  to  drink.  With  Kassitura  and 
Kongoni  in  the  lead  we  followed  the  fresh  trail  for  a  mile 
or  so,  until  we  saw  our  quarry.  The  stupid  beasts  had 
smelt  us,  but  were  trotting  to  and  fro  in  a  state  of  inde- 
cision and  excitement,  tails  twisting  and  ears  cocked, 
uncertain  what  to  do.  At  first  we  thought  they  were  a  bull 
and  a  small  cow;  but  they  proved  to  be  a  big  cow  with 
good  horns,  and  a  calf  which  was  nearly  full  grown.     The 


THE  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE   LADO 


481 


wind  and  sun  were  both  exactly  wrong,  so  Kermit  could 
not  take  any  photos;  and  accordingly  he  shot  the  cow 
behind  the  shoulder.  Away  both  animals  went,  Kermit 
tearing  along  behind,  while  Grogan  and  I  followed.  After 
a  sharp  run  of  a  mile  and  a  half  Kermit  overtook  them, 
and  brought  down 
the  cow.  The 
younger  one  then 
trotted  threaten- 
ingly toward  him. 
He  let  it  get  with- 
in ten  yards,  try- 
ing to  scare  it;  as 
it  kept  coming 
on,  and  could  of 
course  easily  kill 
him,  he  then  fired 
into  its  face,  to 
one  side,  so  as  to 
avoid  inflicting  a 
serious  injury, 
and,  turning,  off  it 
went  at  a  gallop. 
When  I  came  up 
the  cow  had  raised 
itself  on  its  fore- 
legs, and  he  was 
taking  its  picture. 
It  had  been  wal- 
lowing, and  its 
whole  body  was 
covered  with  dry  caked  mud.  It  was  exactly  the  color  of 
the  common  rhino,  but  a  little  larger  than  any  cow  of  the 
latter  that  we  had  killed.  We  at  once  sent  for  Heller — 
who  had  been  working  without  intermission  since  we  struck 
the  Lado,  and  liked  it — and  waited  by  the  body  until  he 
appeared,  in  mid-afternoon. 

31 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Quentin  Grogan 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


482  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

Here  in  the  Lado  we  were  in  a  wild,  uninhabited  coun- 
try, and  for  meat  we  depended  entirely  on  our  rifles;  nor 
was  there  any  difficulty  in  obtaining  all  we  needed.  We 
only  shot  for  meat,  or  for  museum  specimens — all  the 
museum  specimens  being  used  for  food  too — and  as  the 
naturalists  were  as  busy  as  they  well  could  be,  we  found 
that,  except  when  we  were  after  rhinoceros,  it  was  not 
necessary  to  hunt  for  more  than  half  a  day  or  thereabouts. 
On  one  of  these  hunts,  on  which  he  shot  a  couple  of  buck, 
Kermit  also  killed  a  monitor  lizard,  and  a  crocodile  ten 
feet  long;  it  was  a  female,  and  contained  fifty- two  eggs, 
which,  when  scrambled,  we  ate  and  found  good. 

The  morning  after  Kermit  killed  his  cow  rhino  he  and 
Grogan  went  off  for  the  day  to  see  if  they  could  not  get 
some  live  rhino  photos.  Cuninghame  started  to  join  Heller 
at  the  temporary  camp  which  we  had  made  beside  the 
dead  rhino,  in  order  to  help  him  with  the  skin  and  skeletons. 
Mearns  and  Loring  were  busy  with  birds,  small  beasts, 
and  photographs.  So,  as  we  were  out  of  fresh  meat,  I 
walked  away  from  camp  to  get  some,  followed  by  my  gun- 
bearers,  the  little  mule  with  its  well-meaning  and  utterly 
ignorant  shenzi  sais,  and  a  dozen  porters. 

We  first  went  along  the  river  brink  to  look  for  croco- 
diles. In  most  places  the  bank  was  high  and  steep.  Wher- 
ever it  was  broken  there  was  a  drinking-place,  with  lead- 
ing down  to  it  trails  deeply  rutted  in  the  soil  by  the  herds  of 
giant  game  that  had  travelled  them  for  untold  years.  At 
this  point  the  Nile  was  miles  wide,  and  was  divided  into 
curving  channels  which  here  and  there  spread  into  lake- 
like expanses  of  still  water.  Along  the  edges  of  the  river 
and  between  the  winding  channels  and  lagoons  grew  vast 
water-fields  of  papyrus,  their  sheets  and  bands  of  dark 
green  breaking  the  burnished  silver  of  the  sunlit  waters. 
Beyond  the  further  bank  rose  steep,  sharply  peaked  hills. 
The  tricolored  fish  eagles,  striking  to  the  eye  because  of 
their  snow-white  heads  and  breasts,  screamed  continually, 
a   wild   eerie   sound.      Cormorants   and   snake   birds  were 


THE  RHINOCEROS   OF  THE  LADO  483 

perched  on  trees  overhanging  the  water,  and  flew  away,  or 
plunged  like  stones  into  the  stream,  as  I  approached;  her- 
ons of  many  kinds  rose  from  the  marshy  edges  of  the  bays 
and  inlets;  wattled  and  spur-winged  plovers  circled  over- 
head; and  I  saw  a  party  of  hippopotami  in  a  shallow  on 
the  other  side  of  the  nearest  channel,  their  lazy  bulks  raised 
above  water  as  they  basked  asleep  in  the  sun.  The  semi- 
diurnal slate-and-yellow  bats  flitted  from  one  scantily  leaved 
tree  to  another,  as  I  disturbed  them.  At  the  foot  of  a  steep 
bluff,  several  yards  from  the  water,  a  crocodile  lay.  I 
broke  its  neck  with  a  soft-nosed  bullet  from  the  little  Spring- 
field; for  the  plated  skin  of  a  crocodile  offers  no  resistance 
to  a  modern  rifle.  We  dragged  the  ugly  man-eater  up  the 
bank,  and  sent  one  of  the  porters  back  to  camp  to  bring  out 
enough  men  to  carry  the  brute  in  bodily.  It  was  a  female, 
containing  thirty  eggs.  We  did  not  find  any  crocodile's 
nest;  but  near  camp,  in  digging  a  hole  for  the  disposal  of 
refuse,  we  came  on  a  clutch  of  a  dozen  eggs  of  the  monitor 
lizard.  They  were  in  sandy  loam,  two  feet  and  a  half  be- 
neath the  surface,  without  the  vestige  of  a  burrow  leading 
to  them.  When  exposed  to  the  sun,  unlike  the  crocodile's 
eggs,  they  soon  burst.  Evidently  the  young  are  hatched 
in  the  cool  earth  and  dig  their  way  out. 

We  continued  our  walk  and  soon  carhe  on  some  kob. 
At  two  hundred  yards  I  got  a  fine  buck,  though  he  went  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  Then,  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  I 
dropped  a  straw-colored  Nile  hartebeest.  Sending  in  the 
kob  and  hartebeest  used  up  all  our  porters  but  two,  and  I 
mounted  the  little  mule  and  turned  toward  camp,  having 
been  out  three  hours.  Soon  Gouvimali  pointed  out  a  big 
bustard,  marching  away  through  the  grass  a  hundred  yards 
off.  I  dismounted,  shot  him  through  the  base  of  the  neck, 
and  remounted.  Then  Kongoni  pointed  out,  some  distance 
ahead,  a  bushbuck  ram,  of  the  harnessed  kind  found  in 
this  part  of  the  Nile  Valley.  Hastily  dismounting,  and 
stealing  rapidly  from  ant-heap  to  ant-heap,  until  I  was  not 
much  over  a  hundred  yards  from  him,  I  gave  him  a  fatal 


484 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


shot;  but  the  bullet  was  placed  a  little  too  far  back,  and  he 
could  still  go  a  considerable  distance.  So  far  I  had  been 
shooting  well;  now,  pride  had  a  fall.  Immediately  after 
the  shot  a  difficulty  arose  in  the  rear  between  the  mule  and 


Mr.  Roosevelt  with  kob,  shot  at  rhino  camp 
From,  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


the  shenzi  sais;  they  parted  company,  and  the  mule  joined 
the  shooting  party  in  front,  at  a  gallop.  The  bushbuck, 
which  had  halted  with  its  head  down,  started  off  and  I 
trotted  after  it,  while  the  mule  pursued  an  uncertain  course 
between  us;    and  I  don't  know  which  it  annoyed  most.     I 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  485 

emptied  my  magazine  twice,  and  partly  a  third  time,  be- 
fore I  finally  killed  the  buck  and  scared  the  mule  so  that  it 
started  for  camp.  The  bushbuck  in  this  part  of  the  Nile 
Valley  did  not  live  in  dense  forest,  like  those  of  East  Africa, 
but  among  the  scattered  bushes  and  acacias.  Those  that 
I  shot  in  the  Lado  had  in  their  stomachs  leaves,  twig  tips, 
and  pods;  one  that  Kermit  shot,  a  fine  buck,  had  been 
eating  grass  also.  On  the  Uasin  Gishu,  in  addition  to 
leaves  and  a  little  grass,  they  had  been  feeding  on  the  wild 
olives. 

Our  porters  were  not  as  a  rule  by  any  means  the  equals 
of  those  we  had  in  East  Africa,  and  we  had  some  trouble 
because,  as  we  did  not  know  their  names  and  faces,  those 
who  wished  to  shirk  would  go  off  in  the  bushes  while  their 
more  willing  comrades  would  be  told  off  for  the  needed 
work.  So  Cuninghame  determined  to  make  each  readily 
identifiable;  and  one  day  I  found  him  sitting,  in  Rhada- 
manthus  mood,  at  his  table  before  his  tent,  while  all  the 
porters  filed  by,  each  in  turn  being  decorated  with  a  tag, 
conspicuously  numbered,  which  was  hung  round  his  neck 
— the  tags,  by  the  way,  being  Smithsonian  label  cards, 
contributed  by  Dr.  Mearns. 

At  last  Kermit  succeeded  in  getting  some  good  white 
rhino  pictures.  He  was  out  with  his  gun-bearers  and  Gro- 
gan.  They  had  hunted  steadily  for  nearly  two  days  with- 
out seeing  a  rhino;  then  Kermit  made  out  a  big  cow  with 
a  calf  lying  under  a  large  tree,  on  a  bare  plain  of  short  grass. 
Accompanied  by  Grogan,  and  by  a  gun-bearer  carrying 
his  rifle,  while  he  himself  carried  his  "naturalist's  graph- 
lex"  camera,  he  got  up  to  within  fifty  or  sixty  yards  of  the 
dull-witted  beasts,  and  spent  an  hour  cautiously  manoeu- 
vring and  taking  photos.  He  got  several  photos  of  the 
cow  and  calf  lying  under  the  tree.  Then  something,  proba- 
bly the  click  of  the  camera,  rendered  them  uneasy  and  they 
stood  up.  Soon  the  calf  lay  down  again,  while  the  cow 
continued  standing  on  the  other  side  of  the  tree,  her  head 
held  down,   the  muzzle  almost  touching  the  ground,   ac- 


486  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

cording  to  the  custom  of  this  species.  After  taking  one  or 
two  more  pictures  Kermit  edged  in,  so  as  to  get  better 
ones.  Gradually  the  cow  grew  alarmed.  She  raised  her 
head,  as  these  animals  always  do  when  interested  or  ex- 
cited, twisted  her  tail  into  a  tight  knot,  and  walked  out  from 
under  the  tree,  followed  by  the  calf;  she  and  the  calf  stood 
stern  to  stern  for  a  few  seconds,  and  Kermit  took  another 
photo.  By  this  time  the  cow  had  become  both  puzzled 
and  irritated.  Even  with  her  dim  eyes  she  could  make 
out  the  men  and  the  camera,  and  once  or  twice  she  threat- 
ened a  charge,  but  thought  better  of  it.  Then  she  began 
to  move  off;  but  suddenly  wheeled  and  charged,  this  time 
bent  on  mischief.  She  came  on  at  a  slashing  trot,  grad- 
ually increasing  her  pace,  the  huge,  square  lips  shaking 
from  side  to  side.  Hoping  that  she  would  turn  Kermit 
shouted  loudly-  and  waited  before  firing  until  she  was  only 
ten  yards  off.  Then,  with  the  Winchester,  he  put  a  bullet 
in  between  her  neck  and  shoulder,  a  mortal  wound.  She 
halted  and  half  wheeled,  and  Grogan  gave  her  right  and 
left,  Kermit  putting  in  a  couple  of  additional  bullets  as  she 
went  off.  A  couple  of  hundred  yards  away  she  fell,  rose 
again,  staggered,  fell  again,  and  died.  The  calf,  which  was 
old  enough  to  shift  for  itself,  refused  to  leave  the  body, 
although  Kermit  and  Grogan  pelted  it  with  sticks  and 
clods.  Finally  a  shot  through  the  flesh  of  the  buttocks 
sent  it  off  in  frantic  haste.  Kermit  had  only  killed  the 
cow  because  it  was  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  avoid 
an  accident,  and  he  was  sorry  for  the  necessity;  but  I  was 
not,  for  it  was  a  very  fine  specimen,  with  the  front  horn 
thirty-one  inches  long;  being  longer  than  any  other  we 
had  gotten.  The  second  horn  was  compressed  laterally, 
exactly  as  with  many  black  rhinos  (although  it  is  some- 
times stated  that  this  does  not  occur  in  the  case  of  the 
white  rhino).  We  preserved  the  head-skin  and  skull  for 
the  National  Museum. 

The  flesh  of  this  rhino,   especially  the  hump,   proved 
excellent.     It  is  a  singular  thing  that  scientific  writers  seem 


The  cow  and  calf  square-nosed  rhino  under  the  tree  after  being  disturbed 
by  the  click  of  the  camera 

From  a  photograph,  copyrighit  by  Kertnit  Roosevelt 


488 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


almost  to  have  overlooked,  and  never  lay  any  stress  upon, 
the  existence  of  this  neck  hump.  It  is  on  the  neck,  forward 
of  the  long  dorsal  vertebra,  and  is  very  conspicuous  in 
the  living  animal;  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  some 
inches  of  the  exceptional  height  measurements  attributed 
to  South  African  vv'hite  rhinos  may  be  due  to  measuring 
to  the  top  of  this  hump.     I  am  also  puzzled  by  what  seems 


The  calf,  which  was  old  enough  to  shift  for  itself,  refused  to  leave  the  body 
From  a  pholograph,  copyright,  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 

to  be  the  great  inferiority  in  horn  development  of  these 
square-mouthed  rhinos  of  the  Lado  to  the  square-mouthed 
or  white  rhinos  of  South  Africa  (and,  by  the  way,  I  may 
mention  that  on  the  whole  these  Lado  rhinos  certainly 
looked  lighter  colored,  when  we  came  across  them  stand- 
ing in  the  open,  than  did  their  prehensile-lipped  East  Afri- 
can brethren).  We  saw  between  thirty  and  forty  square- 
mouthed  rhinos  in  the  Lado,  and  Kermit's  cow  had  much 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  489 

the  longest  horn  of  any  of  them;  and  while  they  averaged 
much  better  horns  than  the  black  rhinos  we  had  seen  in  East 
Africa,  between  one  and  two  hundred  in  number,  there 
were  any  number  of  exceptions  on  both  sides.  There  are 
recorded  measurements  of  white  rhino  horns  from  South 
Africa  double  as  long  as  our  longest  from  the  Lado.  Now 
this  is,  scientifically,  a  fact  of  some  importance,  but  it  is  of 
no  consequence  whatever  when  compared  with  the  question 
as  to  what,  if  any,  the  difference  is  between  the  average 
horns;  and  this  last  fact  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain,  largely 
because  of  the  foolish  obsession  for  "record"  heads  which 
seems  to  completely  absorb  so  many  hunters  who  write. 
What  we  need  at  the  moment  is  more  information  about 
the  average  South  African  heads.  There  are  to  be  found 
among  most  kinds  of  horn-bearing  animals  individuals  with 
horns  of  wholly  exceptional  size,  just  as  among  all  nations 
there  are  individuals  of  wholly  exceptional  height.  But  a 
comparison  of  these  wholly  exceptional  horns,  although  it 
has  a  certain  value,  is,  scientifically,  much  like  a  comparison 
of  the  giants  of  different  nations.  A  good  head  is  of  course 
better  than  a  poor  one;  and  a  special  effort  to  secure  an 
exceptional  head  is  sportsmanlike  and  proper.  But  to  let 
the  desire  for  "record"  heads,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else, 
become  a  craze,  is  absurd.  The  making  of  such  a  collec- 
tion is  in  itself  not  only  proper  but  meritorious;  all  I  object 
to  is  the  loss  of  all  sense  of  proportion  in  connection  there- 
with. It  is  just  as  with  philately,  or  heraldry,  or  collecting 
the  signatures  of  famous  men.  The  study  of  stamps,  or  of 
coats  of  arms,  or  the  collecting  of  autographs,  is  an  entirely 
legitimate  amusement,  and  may  be  more  than  a  mere 
amusement;  it  is  only  when  the  student  or  collector  allows 
himself  utterly  to  misestimate  the  importance  of  his  pur- 
suit that  it  becomes  ridiculous. 

Cuninghame,  Grogan,  Heller,  Kermit,  and  I  now 
went  off  on  a  week's  safari  inland,  travelling  as  light  as 
possible.  The  first  day's  march  brought  us  to  the  kraal  of 
a  local  chief  named  Sururu.     There  were  a  few  banana- 


490  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

trees,  and  patches  of  scrawny  cultivation,  round  the  Httle 
cluster  of  huts,  ringed  with  a  thorn  fence,  through  which 
led  a  low  door;  and  the  natives  owned  goats  and  chickens. 
Sururu  himself  wore  a  white  sheet  of  cotton  as  a  toga,  and 
he  owned  a  red  fez  and  a  pair  of  baggy  blue  breeches, 
which  last  he  generally  carried  over  his  shoulder.  His 
people  were  very  scantily  clad  indeed,  and  a  few  of  them, 
both  men  and  women,  wore  absolutely  nothing  except  a 
string  of  blue  beads  around  the  waist  or  neck.  Their 
ears  had  not  been  pierced  and  stretched  like  so  many 
East  African  savages,  but  their  lower  lips  were  pierced 
for  wooden  ornaments  and  quills.  They  brought  us  eggs 
and  chickens,  which  we  paid  for  with  American  cloth;  this 
cloth,  and  some  umbrellas,  constituting  our  stock  of  trade 
goods,  or  gift  goods,  for  the  Nile. 

The  following  day  Sururu  himself  led  us  to  our  next 
camp,  only  a  couple  of  hours  away.  It  was  a  dry  country 
of  harsh  grass,  everywhere  covered  by  a  sparse  growth  of 
euphorbias  and  stunted  thorns,  which  were  never  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  to  make  a  forest,  each  little,  wellnigh  leaf- 
less tree,  standing  a  dozen  rods  or  so  distant  from  its  nearest 
fellow.  Most  of  the  grass  had  been  burnt,  and  fires  were 
still  raging.  Our  camp  was  by  a  beautiful  pond,  covered 
with  white  and  lilac  water-lilies.  We  pitched  our  two 
tents  on  a  bluff,  under  some  large  acacias  that  cast  real 
shade.  It  was  between  two  and  three  degrees  north  of  the 
equator.  The  moon,  the  hot  January  moon  of  the  mid- 
tropics,  was  at  the  full,  and  the  nights  were  very  lovely; 
the  little  sheet  of  water  glimmered  in  the  moon  rays,  and 
round  about  the  dry  landscape  shone  with  a  strange,  spec- 
tral light. 

Near  the  pond,  just  before  camping,  I  shot  a  couple  of 
young  waterbuck  bulls  for  food,  and  while  we  were  pitching 
the  tents  a  small  herd  of  elephants — cows,  young  bulls, 
and  calves,  seemingly  disturbed  by  a  grass  fire  which  was 
burning  a  little  way  off,  came  up  within  four  hundred  yards 
of  us.     At  first  we  mistook  one  large  cow  for  a  bull,  and 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  491 

running  quickly  from  bush  to  bush,  diagonally  to  its  course, 
i  got  within  sixty  yards,  and  watched  it  pass  at  a  quick 
shuffling  walk,  lifting  and  curling  its  trunk.  The  blindness 
of  both  elephant  and  rhino  has  never  been  sufficiently  em- 
phasized in  books.  Near  camp  was  the  bloody,  broken 
skeleton  of  a  young  wart-hog  boar,  killed  by  a  lion  the  pre- 
vious night.  There  were  a  number  of  lions  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  they  roared  at  intervals  all  night  long.  Next 
morning,  after  Grogan  and  I  had  started  from  camp,  when 
the  sun  had  been  up  an  hour,  we  heard  one  roar  loudly  less 
than  a  mile  away.  Running  toward  the  place  we  tried  to 
find  the  lion;  but  near  by  a  small  river  ran  through  beds 
of  reeds,  and  the  fires  had  left  many  patches  of  tall,  yellow, 
half-burned  grass,  so  that  it  had  ample  cover,  and  our  search 
was  fruitless. 

Near  the  pond  were  green  parrots  and  brilliant  wood 
hoopoos,  rollers,  and  sunbirds;  and  buck  of  the  ordinary 
kinds  drank  at  it.  A  duiker  which  I  shot  for  the  table  had 
been  feeding  on  grass  tips  and  on  the  stems  and  leaves  of  a 
small,  low-growing  plant. 

After  giving  up  the  quest  for  the  lion  Grogan  and  I, 
with  our  gun-bearers,  spent  the  day  walking  over  the 
great  dry  flats  of  burnt  grass-land  and  sparse,  withered 
forest.  The  heat  grew  intense  as  the  sun  rose  higher  and 
higher.  Hour  after  hour  we  plodded  on  across  vast  level 
stretches,  or  up  or  down  inclines  so  slight  as  hardly  to  be 
noticeable.  The  black  dust  of  the  burn  rose  in  puffs  be- 
neath our  feet;  and  now  and  then  we  saw  dust  devils, 
violent  little  whirlwinds,  which  darted  right  and  left,  rais- 
ing to  a  height  of  many  feet  gray  funnels  of  ashes  and 
withered  leaves.  In  places  the  coarse  grass  had  half  re- 
sisted the  flames,  and  rose  above  our  heads.  Here  and 
there  bleached  skulls  of  elephant  and  rhino,  long  dead, 
showed  white  against  the  charred  surface  of  the  soil.  Every- 
where, crossing  and  recrossing  one  another,  were  game 
trails,  some  slightly  marked,  others  broad  and  hard,  and 
beaten  deep  into  the  soil  by  the  feet  of  the  giant  creatures 


492  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

that  had  trodden  them  for  ages.  The  elephants  had  been 
the  chief  road  makers;  but  the  rhinoceros  had  travelled 
their  trails,  and  also  buffalo  and  buck. 

There  were  elephant  about,  but  only  cows  and  calves, 
and  an  occasional  bull  with  very  small  tusks.  Of  rhinoceros, 
all  square-mouthed,  we  saw  nine,  none  carrying  horns  which 
made  them  worth  shooting.  The  first  one  I  saw  was  in 
long  grass.  My  attention  was  attracted  by  a  row  of  white 
objects  moving  at  some  speed  through  the  top  of  the  grass. 
It  took  a  second  look  before  I  made  out  that  they  were 
cow-herons  perched  on  the  back  of  a  rhino.  This  proved 
to  be  a  bull,  which  joined  a  cow  and  a  calf.  None  had 
decent  horns,  and  we  plodded  on.  Soon  we  came  to  the 
trail  of  two  others,  and  after  a  couple  of  miles'  tracking 
Kongoni  pointed  to  two  gray  bulks  lying  down  under  a  tree. 
I  walked  cautiously  to  within  thirty  yards.  They  heard 
something,  and  up  rose  the  two  pig-like  blinking  creatures, 
who  gradually  became  aware  of  my  presence,  and  re- 
treated a  few  steps  at  a  time,  dull  curiosity  continually  over- 
coming an  uneasiness  which  never  grew  into  fear.  Toss- 
ing their  stumpy-horned  heads,  and  twisting  their  tails 
into  tight  knots,  they  ambled  briskly  from  side  to  side, 
and  were  ten  minutes  in  getting  to  a  distance  of  a  hundred 
yards.  Then  our  shenzi  guide  mentioned  that  there  were 
other  rhinos  close  by,  and  we  walked  off  to  inspect  them. 
In  three  hundred  yards  we  came  on  them,  a  cow  and  a 
well-grown  calf.  Sixty  yards  from  them  was  an  ant-hill 
with  little  trees  on  it.  From  this  we  looked  at  them  until 
some  sound  or  other  must  have  made  them  uneasy,  for  up 
they  got.  The  young  one  seemed  to  have  rather  keener 
suspicions,  although  no  more  sense,  than  its  mother,  and 
after  a  while  grew  so  restless  that  it  persuaded  the  cow  to  go 
off  with  it.  But  the  still  air  gave  no  hint  of  our  where- 
abouts, and  they  walked  straight  toward  us.  I  did  not 
wish  to  have  to  shoot  one,  and  so  when  they  were  within 
thirty  yards  we  raised  a  shout  and  away  they  cantered, 
heads  tossing  and  tails  twisting. 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  493 

Three  hours  later  we  saw  another  cow  and  calf.  By 
this  time  it  was  half-past  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  the 
two  animals  had  risen  from  their  noonday  rest  and  were 
grazing  busily,  the  great  clumsy  heads  sweeping  the  ground. 
Watching  them  forty  yards  off  it  was  some  time  before  the 
cow  raised  her  head  high  enough  for  me  to  see  that  her 
horns  were  not  good.  Then  they  became  suspicious,  and 
the  cow  stood  motionless  for  several  minutes,  her  head 
held  low.  We  moved  quietly  back,  and  at  last  they  either 
dimly  saw  us,  or  heard  us,  and  stood  looking  toward  us, 
their  big  ears  cocked  forward.  At  this  moment  we  stumbled 
on  a  rhino  skull,  bleached,  but  in  such  good  preservation 
that  we  knew  Heller  would  like  it;  and  we  loaded  it  on  the 
porters  that  had  followed  us.  All  the  time  we  were  thus 
engaged  the  two  rhinos,  only  a  hundred  yards  off,  were 
intently  gazing  in  our  direction,  with  foolish  and  bewildered 
solemnity;  and  there  we  left  them,  survivors  from  a  long- 
vanished  world,  standing  alone  in  the  parched  desolation 
of  the  wilderness. 

On  another  day  Kermit  saw  ten  rhino,  none  with  more 
than  ordinary  horns.  Five  of  them  were  in  one  party,  and 
were  much  agitated  by  the  approach  of  the  men;  they  ran 
to  and  fro,  their  tails  twisted  into  the  usual  pig-like  curl, 
and  from  sheer  nervous  stupidity  bade  fair  at  one  time  to 
force  the  hunters  to  fire  in  self-defence.  Finally,  however, 
they  all  ran  off.  In  the  case  of  a  couple  of  others  a  curious 
incident  happened.  When  alarmed  they  failed  to  make 
out  where  the  danger  lay,  and  after  running  away  a  short 
distance  they  returned  to  a  bush  near  by  to  look  about. 
One  remained  standing,  but  the  other  deliberately  sat 
down  upon  its  haunches  like  a  dog,  staring  ahead,  Ker- 
mit meanwhile  being  busy  with  his  camera.  Two  or  three 
times  I  saw  rhino,  when  roused  from  sleep,  thus  sit  up  on 
their  haunches  and  look  around  before  rising  on  all  four 
legs;  but  this  was  the  only  time  that  any  of  us  saw  a  rhino 
which  was  already  standing  assume  such  a  position.  No 
other  kind  of  heavy  game  has  this  habit;    and  indeed,  so 


494 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


far  as  I  know,  only  one  other  hoofed  animal,  the  white  goat 
of  the  northern  Rocky  Mountains.  In  the  case  of  the 
white  goat,  however,  the  attitude  is  far  more  often  assumed, 
and  in  more  extreme  form;    it  is  one  of  the  characteristic 


When  alarmed  they  failed  to  make  out  where  the  danger  lay 
From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 

traits  of  the  queer  goat-antelope,  so  many  of  whose  ways 
and  looks  are  peculiar  to  itself  alone. 

From  the  lily-pond  camp  we  went  back  to  our  camp 
outside  Sururu's  village.  This  was  a  very  pleasant  camp 
because  while  there,  although  the  heat  was  intense  in  the 
daytime,  the  nights  were  cool  and  there  were  no  mosquitoes. 
During  our  stay  in  the  Lado  it  was  generally  necessary 
to  wear  head  nets  and  gloves  in  the  evenings  and  to  go  to 
bed  at  once  after  dinner,  and  then  to  lie  under  the  mosquito 
bar  with  practically  nothing  on  through  the  long  hot  night, 
sleeping  or  contentedly  listening  to  the  humming  of  the 


496  AFRICAN    GAME   TRAILS 

baffled  myriads  outside  the  net.  At  the  Sururu  camp,  how- 
ever, we  could  sit  at  a  table  in  front  of  the  tents,  after  sup- 
per— or  dinner,  whichever  one  chose  to  call  it — and  read  by 
lamplight,  in  the  still,  cool,  pleasant  air;  or  walk  up  and 
down  the  hard,  smooth  elephant  path  which  led  by  the 
tents,  looking  at  the  large  red  moon  just  risen,  as  it 
hung  low  over  the  horizon,  or  later,  when,  white  and 
clear,  it  rode  high  in  the  heavens  and  flooded  the  land 
with  its  radiance. 

There  was  a  swamp  close  by,  and  we  went  through  this 
the  first  afternoon  in  search  of  buffalo.  We  found  plenty  of 
sign;  but  the  close-growing  reeds  were  ten  feet  high,  and 
even  along  the  winding  buffalo  trails  by  which  alone  they 
could  be  penetrated  it  was  impossible  to  see  a  dozen  paces 
ahead.  Inside  the  reeds  it  was  nearly  impossible  to  get  to 
the  buffalo,  or  at  least  to  be  sure  to  kill  only  a  bull,  which 
was  all  I  wanted;  and  at  this  time  when  the  moon  was  just 
past  the  full,  these  particular  buffalo  only  came  out  into 
the  open  to  feed  at  night,  or  very  early  in  the  morning  and 
late  in  the  evening.  But  Sururu  said  that  there  were  other 
buffalo  which  lived  away  from  the  reeds,  among  the  thorn- 
trees  on  the  grassy  flats  and  low  hills;  and  he  volunteered 
to  bring  me  information  about  them  on  the  morrow.  Sure 
enough,  shortly  before  eleven  next  morning,  he  turned 
up  with  the  news  that  he  had  found  a  solitary  bull  only 
about  five  miles  away.  Grogan  and  I  at  once  started  back 
with  him,  accompanied  by  our  gun-bearers.  The  country 
was  just  such  as  that  in  which  we  had  hitherto  found  our 
rhinos;  and  there  was  fresh  sign  of  rhino  as  well  as  buffalo. 
The  thorny,  scantily  leaved  trees  were  perhaps  a  little 
closer  together  than  in  most  places,  and  there  were  a  good 
many  half-burned  patches  of  tall  grass.  We  passed  a 
couple  of  ponds  which  must  have  been  permanent,  as  water- 
lilies  were  growing  in  them;  at  one  a  buffalo  had  been 
drinking.  It  was  half-past  twelve  when  we  reached  the 
place  where  Sururu  had  seen  the  bull.  We  then  advanced 
with  the  utmost  caution  as  the  wind  was  shifty,  and  although 


THE  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE   LADO  497 

the  cover  was  thin,  it  yet  rendered  it  difficuk  to  see  a  hun- 
dred yards  in  advance.  At  hist  we  made  out  the  bull,  on 
his  feet  and  feeding,  although  it  was  high  noon.  He  was 
stern  toward  us,  and  while  we  were  stealing  toward  him  a 
puff  of  wind  gave  him  our  scent.  At  once  he  whipped 
around,  gazed  at  us  for  a  moment  with  out-stretched  head, 
and  galloped  off.  I  could  not  get  a  shot  through  the  bushes, 
and  after  him  we  ran,  Kongoni  leading,  with  me  at  his  heels. 
It  was  hot  work  running,  for  at  this  time  the  thermometer 
registered  102°  in  the  shade.  Fortunately  the  bull  had 
little  fear  of  man,  and  being  curious,  and  rather  trucu- 
lent, he  halted  two  or  three  times  to  look  round.  Finally, 
after  we  had  run  a  mile  and  a  half,  he  halted  once  too  often, 
and  I  got  a  shot  at  him  at  eighty  yards.  The  heavy  bullet 
went  home;  I  fired  twice  again  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
and  the  bull  never  moved  from  where  he  had  stood.  He 
was  an  old  bull,  as  big  as  an  East  African  buffalo  bull; 
but  his  worn  horns  were  smaller  and  rather  different. 
This  had  rendered  Kongoni  uncertain  whether  he  might 
not  be  a  cow;  and  when  we  came  up  to  the  body  he  ex- 
claimed with  delight  that  it  was  a  "duck" — Kongoni's 
invariable  method  of  pronouncing  "buck,"  the  term  he 
used  to  describe  anything  male,  from  a  lion  or  an  elephant 
to  a  bustard  or  a  crocodile;  "cow"  being  his  expression  for 
the  female  of  these  and  all  other  creatures.  As  Gouvimali 
came  running  up  to  shake  hands,  his  face  wreathed  in 
smiles,  he  exclaimed  "G-o-o-d-e  morning";  a  phrase  which 
he  had  picked  up  under  the  impression  that  it  was  a  species 
of  congratulation. 

As  always  when  I  have  killed  buffalo  I  was  struck  by 
the  massive  bulk  of  the  great  bull  as  he  lay  in  death,  and 
by  the  evident  and  tremendous  muscular  power  of  his  big- 
boned  frame.  He  looked  what  he  was,  a  formidable  beast. 
Thirty  porters  had  to  be  sent  out  to  bring  to  camp  the 
head,  hide,  and  meat.  We  found,  by  the  way,  that  his 
meat  made  excellent  soup,  his  kidneys  a  good  stew,  while 
his  tongue  was  delicious. 

.        32       ^ 


498  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

Next  morning  Kermit  and  I  with  the  bulk  of  the  safari 
walked  back  to  our  main  camp,  on  the  Nile,  leaving  Cun- 
inghame  and  Heller  where  they  were  for  a  day,  to  take 
care  of  the  buffalo  skin.  Each  of  us  struck  off  across  the 
country  by  himself,  with  his  gun-bearers.  After  walking 
five  or  six  miles  I  saw  a  big  rhino  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
off.  At  this  point  the  country  was  flat,  the  acacias  very 
thinly  scattered,  and  the  grass  completely  burnt  off,  the 
green  young  blades  sprouting;  and  there  was  no  difficulty 
in  making  out,  at  the  distance  we  did,  the  vast  gray  bulk  of 
the  rhino  as  it  stood  inertly  under  a  tree.  Drawing  nearer 
we  saw  that  it  had  a  good  horn,  although  not  as  good  as 
Kermit's  best;  and  approaching  quietly  to  within  forty 
yards  I  shot  the  beast. 

At  the  main  camp  we  found  that  Mearns  had  made 
a  fine  collection  of  birds  in  our  absence;  while  Loring 
had  taken  a  variety  of  excellent  photos,  of  marabou,  vult- 
ures, and  kites  feeding,  and,  above  all,  of  a  monitor  lizard 
plundering  the  nest  of  a  crocodile.  The  monitors  were 
quite  plentiful  near  camp.  They  are  amphibious,  carniv- 
orous lizards  of  large  size;  they  frequent  the  banks  of  the 
river,  running  well  on  the  land,  and  sometimes  even  climb- 
ing trees,  but  taking  to  the  water  when  alarmed.  They 
feed  on  mice  and  rats,  other  lizards,  eggs,  and  fish;  the 
stomachs  of  those  we  caught  generally  contained  fish,  for 
they  are  expert  swimmers.  One  morning  Loring  sur- 
prised a  monitor  which  had  just  uncovered  some  crocodile 
eggs  on  a  small  sandy  beach.  The  eggs,  about  thirty  in 
number,  were  buried  in  rather  shallow  fashion,  so  that  the 
monitor  readily  uncovered  them.  The  monitor  had  one 
of  the  eggs  transversely  in  its  mouth,  and,  head  erect,  was 
marching  off  with  it.  As  soon  as  it  saw  Loring  it  dropped 
the  egg  and  scuttled  into  the  reeds;  in  a  few  minutes  it 
returned,  took  another  egg,  and  walked  off  into  the  bushes, 
where  it  broke  the  shell,  swallowed  the  yolk,  and  at  once 
returned  to  the  nest  for  another  egg.  Loring  took  me  out 
to  see  the  feat  repeated,  replenishing  the  rifled  nest  with 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO 


499 


eggs  taken  from  a  crocodile  the  Doctor  had  shot;  and  I 
was  delighted  to  watch,  from  our  hiding  place,  the  big  lizard 
as  he  cautiously  approached,  seized  an  egg,  and  then  re- 
tired to  cover  with  his  booty.  Kermit  came  on  a  monitor 
plundering  a  crocodile's  nest  at  the  top  of  a  steep  bank, 
while,  funnily  enough,  a  large  crocodile  lay  asleep  at  the 
foot  of  the  bank  only  a  few  yards  distant.     As  soon  as  it 


The  monitor  lizard  robbing  a  crocodile's  nest 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Aldeti  Loring 

saw  Kermit  the  monitor  dropped  the  egg  it  was  carrying, 
ran  up  a  slanting  tree  which  overhung  the  river,  and 
dropped  into  the  water  like  a  snake  bird. 

There  was  always  something  interesting  to  do  or  to 
see  at  this  camp.  One  afternoon  I  spent  in  the  boat.  The 
papyrus  along  the  channel  rose  like  a  forest,  thirty  feet  high, 
the  close-growing  stems  knit  together  by  vines.  As  we 
drifted  down,  the  green  wall  was  continually  broken  by 
openings,  through  which  side  streams  from  the  great  river 
rushed,  swirling  and  winding,  down  narrow  lanes  and 
under  low  archways,  into  the  dim  mysterious  heart  of 
the  vast  reedbeds,  where  dwelt  bird  and  reptile  and  water 
beast.  In  a  shallow  bay  we  came  on  two  hippo  cows  with 
their  calves,  and  a   dozen  crocodiles.    I   shot  one  of  the 


500  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

latter — as  I  always  do,  when  I  get  a  chance — and  it  turned 
over  and  over,  lashing  with  its  tail  as  it  sank.  A  half-grown 
hippo  came  up  close  by  the  boat  and  leaped  nearly  clear  of 
the  water;  and  in  another  place  I  saw  a  mother  hippo 
swimming,  with  the  young  one  resting  half  on  its  back. 

Another  day  Kermit  came  on  some  black-and-white 
Colobus  monkeys.  Those  we  had  shot  east  of  the  Rift 
Valley  had  long  mantles,  and  more  white  than  black  in 
their  coloring;  west  of  the  Rift  Valley  they  had  less  white 
and  less  of  the  very  long  hair;  and  here  on  the  Nile  the 
change  had  gone  still  further  in  the  same  direction.  On  the 
west  coast  this  kind  of  monkey  is  said  to  be  entirely  black. 
But  we  were  not  prepared  for  the  complete  change  in  hab- 
its. In  East  Africa  the  Colobus  monkeys  kept  to  the  dense 
cool  mountain  forests,  dwelt  in  the  tops  of  the  big  trees,  and 
rarely  descended  to  the  ground.  Here,  on  the  Nile,  they 
lived  in  exactly  such  country  as  that  affected  by  the  smaller 
greenish-yellow  monkeys,  which  we  found  along  the  Guaso 
Nyero  for  instance;  country  into  which  the  East  African 
Colobus  never  by  any  chance  wandered.  Moreover,  instead 
of  living  in  the  tall  timber,  and  never  going  on  the  ground 
except  for  a  few  yards,  as  m  East  Africa,  here  on  the  Nile 
they  sought  to  escape  danger  by  flight  over  the  ground,  in 
the  scrub.  Kermit  found  some  in  a  grove  of  fairly  big 
acacias,  but  they  instantly  dropped  to  the  earth  and  gal- 
loped off  among  the  dry,  scattered  bushes  and  small  thorn- 
trees.  Kermit  also  shot  a  twelve-foot  crocodile  in  which 
he  found  the  remains  of  a  big  heron. 

One  morning  we  saw  from  camp  a  herd  of  elephants  in 
a  piece  of  unburned  swamp.  It  was  a  mile  and  a  half 
away  in  a  straight  line,  although  we  had  to  walk  three 
miles  to  get  there.  There  were  between  forty  and  fifty 
of  them,  a  few  big  cows  with  calves,  the  rest  half-grown 
and  three-quarters-grown  animals.  Over  a  hundred  white 
herons  accompanied  them.  From  an  ant-hill  to  leeward 
we  watched  them  standing  by  a  mud  hole  in  the  swamp; 
evidently  they  now  and  then  got  a  whiff  from  our  camp, 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  "     501 

for  they  were  continually  lifting  and  curling  their  trunks. 
To  see  if  by  any  chance  there  was  a  bull  among  them  we 
moved  them  out  of  the  swamp  by  shouting;  the  wind 
blew  hard  and  as  they  moved  they  evidently  smelled  the 
camp  strongly,  for  all  their  trunks  went  into  the  air;  and 
off  they  went  at  a  rapid  pace,  half  of  the  herons  riding  on 
them,  while  the  others  hovered  over  and  alongside,  like  a 
white  cloud.  Two  days  later  the  same  herd  again  made 
its  appearance. 

Spur-winged  plover  were  nesting  near  camp,  and  evi- 
dently distrusted  the  carrion  feeders,  for  they  attacked  and 
drove  off  every  kite  or  vulture  that  crossed  what  they  consid- 
ered the  prohibited  zone.  They  also  harassed  the  marabous, 
but  with  more  circumspection;  for  the  big  storks  were  short- 
tempered,  and  rather  daunted  the  spurwings  by  the  way 
they  opened  their  enormous  beaks  at  them.  The  fish  eagles 
fed  exclusively  on  fish,  as  far  as  we  could  tell,  and  there  were 
piles  of  fish  bones  and  heads  under  their  favorite  perches. 
Once  I  saw  one  plunge  into  the  water,  but  it  failed  to 
catch  anything.  Another  time,  suddenly,  and  seemingly 
in  mere  mischief,  one  attacked  a  purple  heron  which  was 
standing  on  a  mud  bank.  The  eagle  swooped  down  from  a 
tree  and  knocked  over  the  heron;  and  when  the  astonished 
heron  struggled  to  its  feet  and  attempted  to  fly  off,  the  eagle 
made  another  swoop  and  this  time  knocked  it  into  the  water. 
The  heron  then  edged  into  the  papyrus,  and  the  eagle  paid 
it  no  further  attention. 

In  this  camp  we  had  to  watch  the  white  ants,  which  strove 
to  devour  everything.  They  are  nocturnal,  and  work  in 
the  daytime  only  under  the  tunnels  of  earth  which  they 
build  over  the  surface  of  the  box,  or  whatever  else  it  is, 
that  they  are  devouring;  they  eat  out  everything,  leaving 
this  outside  shell  of  earth.  We  also  saw  a  long  column  of 
the  dreaded  driver  ants.  These  are  carnivorous;  I  have  seen 
both  red  and  black  species;  they  kill  every  living  thing  in 
their  path,  and  I  have  known  them  at  night  drive  all  the 
men  in  a  camp  out  into  the  jungle  to  fight  the  mosquitoes 


502  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

unprotected  until  daylight.  On  another  occasion,  where  a 
steamboat  was  moored  close  to  a  bank,  an  ant  column 
entered  the  boat  after  nightfall,  and  kept  complete  posses- 
sion of  it  for  forty-eight  hours.  Fires,  and  boiling  water, 
offer  the  only  effectual  means  of  resistance.  The  bees  are 
at  times  as  formidable;  when  their  nests  are  disturbed  they 
will  attack  every  one  in  sight,  driving  all  the  crew  of  a  boat 
overboard  or  scattering  a  safari,  and  not  infrequently  kill- 
ing men  and  beasts  of  burden  that  are  unable  to  reach 
some  place  of  safety. 

The  last  afternoon,  when  the  flotilla  had  called  to  take 
us  farther  on  our  journey,  we  shot  about  a  dozen  buck,  to 
give  the  porters  and  sailors  a  feast,  which  they  had  amply 
earned.  All  the  meat  did  not  get  into  camp  until  after 
dark — one  of  the  sailors,  unfortunately,  falling  out  of  a 
tree  and  breaking  his  neck  on  the  way  in — and  it  was 
picturesque  to  see  the  rows  of  big  antelope — hartebeest, 
kob,  waterbuck — stretched  in  front  of  the  flaring  fires, 
and  the  dark  faces  of  the  waiting  negroes,  each  deputed  by 
some  particular  group  of  gun-bearers,  porters,  or  sailors 
to  bring  back  its  share. 

Next  morning  we  embarked,  and  steamed  and  drifted 
down  the  Nile;  ourselves,  our  men,  our  belongings,  and 
the  spoils  of  the  chase  all  huddled  together  under  the  torrid 
sun.  Two  or  three  times  we  grounded  on  sand  bars;  but 
no  damage  was  done,  and  in  twenty-six  hours  we  reached 
Nimule.  We  were  no  longer  in  healthy  East  Africa.  Ker- 
mit  and  I  had  been  in  robust  health  throughout  the  time 
we  were  in  Uganda  and  the  Lado;  but  all  the  other  white 
men  of  the  party  had  suffered  more  or  less  from  dysentery, 
fever,  and  sun  prostration  while  in  the  Lado;  some  of  the 
gun-bearers  had  been  down  with  fever,  one  of  them  dying 
while  we  were  in  Uganda;  and  four  of  the  porters  who  had 
marched  from  Koba  to  Nimule  had  died  of  dysentery — 
they  were  burying  one  when  we  arrived. 

At  Nimule  we  were  as  usual  greeted  with  hospitable 
heartiness  by  the  English  officials,  as  well  as  by  two  or 


THE   RHINOCEROS   OF  THE   LADO  503 

three  elephant  hunters.  One  of  the  latter,  three  days  be- 
fore, had  been  charged  by  an  unwounded  bull  elephant. 
He  fired  both  barrels  into  it  as  it  came  on,  but  it  charged 
home,  knocked  him  down,  killed  his  gun-bearer,  and  made 
its  escape  into  the  forest.  In  the  forlorn  little  graveyard 
at  the  station  were  the  graves  of  two  white  men  who  had 
been  killed  by  elephants.  One  of  them,  named  Stoney, 
had  been  caught  by  a  wounded  bull^  which  stamped  the 
life  out  of  him  and  then  literally  dismembered  him,  tearing 
his  arms  from  his  body.  In  the  African  wilderness,  when  a 
man  dies,  his  companion  usually  brings  in  something  to 
show  that  he  is  dead,  or  some  remnant  of  whatever  it  is 
that  has  destroyed  him;  the  sailors  whose  companion  was 
killed  by  falling  out  of  the  tree  near  our  Lado  camp,  for 
instance,  brought  in  the  dead  branch  which  had  broken 
under  his  weight;  and  Stoney's  gun-bearer  marched  back 
to  Nimule  carrying  an  arm  of  his  dead  master,  and  depos- 
ited his  grewsome  burden  in  the  office  of  the  district 
commissioner. 


CHAPTER    XV 
DOWN  THE  NILE;    THE  GIANT  ELAND 

We  spent  two  or  three  days  in  Nimule,  getting  every- 
thing ready  for  the  march  north  to  Gondokoro. 

By  this  time  Kermit  and  I  had  grown  really  attached 
to  our  personal  followers,  whose  devotion  to  us,  and  whose 
zeal  for  our  success  and  welfare  and  comfort,  had  many 
times  been  made  rather  touchingly  manifest;  even  their 
shortcomings  were  merely  those  of  big,  naughty  children, 
and  though  they  occasionally  needed  discipline,  this  was 
rare,  whereas  the  amusement  they  gave  us  was  unending. 
When  we  reached  Nimule  we  were  greeted  with  enthu- 
siasm by  Magi,  Kermit's  Kikuyu  sais,  who  had  been  in 
charge  of  the  mules  which  we  did  not  take  into  the  Lado. 
Magi  was  now  acting  as  sais  for  me  as  well  as  for  Kermit; 
and  he  came  to  Kermit  to  discuss  the  new  dual  relation- 
ship. "Now  I  am  the  sais  of  the  Bwana  Makuba,  as 
well  as  of  you,  the  Bwana  Merodadi"  (the  Dandy  Master, 
as  for  some  inscrutable  reason  all  the  men  now  called 
Kermit);  "well,  then,  you'll  both  have  to  take  care  of 
me,"  concluded  the  ruse  Magi. 

Whenever  we  reached  one  of  these  little  stations  where 
there  was  an  Indian  trading  store,  we  would  see  that  those 
of  our  followers  who  had  been  specially  devoted  to  us — and 
this  always  included  all  our  immediate  attendants — had  a 
chance  to  obtain  the  few  little  comforts  and  luxuries,  tea, 
sugar,  or  tobacco,  for  instance,  which  meant  so  much  to 
them.  Usually  Kermit  would  take  them  to  the  store  him- 
self, for  they  were  less  wily  than  the  Indian  trader,  and, 
moreover,  in  the  excitement  of  shopping  occasionally  pur- 
chased something  for  which  they  really  had  no  use.  Ker- 
mit would  march  his  tail  of  followers  into  the  store,  give 

504 


DOWN   THE   NILE;   THE   GIANT   ELAND  505 

them  time  to  look  around,  and  then  make  the  first  purchase 
for  the  man  who  had  least  coming  to  him;  this  to  avoid 
heartburnings,  as  the  man  was  invariably  too  much  in- 
terested in  what  he  had  received  to  scrutinize  closely  what 
the  others  were  getting.  The  purchase  might  be  an  article 
of  clothing  or  a  knife,  but  usually  took  the  form  of  tobacco, 
sugar,  and  tea;  in  tobacco  the  man  was  offered  his  choice 
between  quality  and  quantity,  that  is,  either  a  moderate 
quantity  of  good  cigarettes  or  a  large  amount  of  trade 
tobacco;  Funny  little  Juma  Yohari,  for  instance,  one  of 
Kermit's  gun-bearers,  usually  went  in  for  quality,  whereas 
his  colleague  Kassitura  preferred  quantity.  Juma  was  a 
Zanzibari,  a  wiry  merry  little  grig  of  a  man,  loyal,  hard- 
working, fearless;  Kassitura  a  huge  Basoga  negro,  of  guile- 
less honesty  and  good  faith,  incapable  of  neglecting  his 
duty.  Juma  was  rather  the  wit  of  the  gun-bearers'  mess, 
and  Kassitura  the  musician,  having  a  little  native  harp 
on  which  for  hours  at  a  time  he  would  strum  queer  little 
melancholy  tunes,  to  which  he  hummed  an  accompaniment 
in  undertone. 

All  the  natives  we  met,  and  the  men  in  our  employ, 
were  fond  of  singing,  sometimes  simply  improvised  chants, 
sometimes  sentences  of  three  or  four  words  repeated  over 
and  over  again.  The  Uganda  porters  who  were  with  us 
after  we  left  Kampalla  did  not  sing  nearly  as  freely  as 
our  East  African  safari,  although  they  depended  much 
on  the  man  who  beat  the  drum,  at  the  head  of  the  march- 
ing column.  The  East  African  porters  did  every  kind  of 
work  to  an  accompaniment  of  chanting.  When  for  in- 
stance, after  camp  was  pitched,  a  detail  of  men  was  sent 
out  for  wood — the  *'wood  safari'' — the  men  as  they  came 
back  to  camp  with  their  loads  never  did  anything  so  com- 
monplace as  each  merely  to  deposit  his  burden  at  the  proper 
spot.  The  first  comers  waited  in  the  middle  of  the  camp 
until  all  had  assembled,  and  then  marched  in  order  to  where 
the  fire  was  to  be  made,  all  singing  vigorously  and  stepping 
in  time  together.    The  leader,  or  shanty  man,  would  call 


506  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

out  "Kooni"  (wood);  and  all  the  others  would  hum  in 
unison  "  Kooni  telli"  (plenty  of  wood).  "Kooni,"  again 
came  the  shout  of  the  shanty  man;  and  the  answer  would  be 
"Kooni."  ''Kooni,"  from  the  shanty  man;  and  this  time 
all  the  rest  would  simply  utter  a  long-drawn  "Hum-m-m." 
"Kooni,"  again;  and  the  answer  would  be  "Kooni  telli," 
with  strong  emphasis  on  the  "telli."  Then,  if  they  saw 
me,  the  shanty  man  might  vary  by  shouting  that  the  wood 
was  for  the  Bwana  Makuba;  and  so  it  would  continue  until 
the  loads  were  thrown  down. 

Often  a  man  would  improvise  a  song  regarding  any 
small  incident  which  had  just  happened  to  him,  or  a  thought 
which  had  occurred  to  him.  Drifting  down  the  Nile  to 
Nimule  Kermit  and  the  three  naturalists  and  sixty  por- 
ters were  packed  in  sardine  fashion  on  one  of  the  sail- 
boats. At  nightfall  one  of  the  sailors,  the  helmsman,  a 
Swahili  from  Mombasa,  began  to  plan  how  he  would  write 
a  letter  to  his  people  in  Mombasa  and  give  it  to  another 
sailor,  a  friend  of  his,  who  intended  shortly  to  return  thither. 
He  crooned  to  himself  as  he  crouched  by  the  tiller,  steering 
the  boat,  and  gradually,  as  the  moon  shone  on  the  swift, 
quiet  water  of  the  river,  his  crooning  turned  into  a  regu- 
lar song.  His  voice  was  beautiful,  and  there  was  a  wild 
meaningless  refrain  to  each  verse;  the  verses  reciting  how 
he  intended  to  write  this  letter  to  those  whom  he  had  not 
seen  for  two  years;  how  a  friend  would  take  it  to  them,  so 
that  the  letter  would  be  in  Mombasa;  but  he,  the  man  who 
wrote  it,  would  for  two  years  more  be  in  the  far-off  wil- 
derness. 

On  February  17th  the  long  line  of  our  laden  safari  left 
Nimule  on  its  ten  days'  march  to  Gondokoro.  We  went 
through  a  barren  and  thirsty  land.  Our  first  camp  was 
by  a  shallow,  running  river,  with  a  shaded  pool  in  which 
we  bathed.  After  that  we  never  came  on  running  water, 
merely  on  dry  watercourses  with  pools  here  and  there, 
some  of  the  pools  being  crowded  with  fish.  Tall  half- 
burnt  grass,  and   scattered,  wellnigh  leafless  thorn   scrub 


DOWN  THE   NILE;   THE   GIANT  ELAND  507 

covered  the  monotonous  landscape,  although  we  could 
generally  find  some  fairly  leafy  tree  near  which  to  pitch 
the  tents.  The  heat  was  great;  more  than  once  the  ther- 
mometer at  noon  rose  to  112°  in  the  shade — not  real  shade, 
however,  but  in  a  stifling  tent,  or  beneath  a  tree  the  foliage 
of  which  let  through  at  least  a  third  of  the  sun-rays.  The 
fiery  heat  of  the  ground  so  burnt  and  crippled  the  feet  of 
the  porters  that  we  had  to  start  each  day's  march  very 
early. 

At  quarter  of  three  in  the  morning  the  whistle  blew; 
we  dressed  and  breakfasted  while  the  tents  were  taken 
down  and  the  loads  adjusted.  Then  off  we  strode,  through 
the  hot  starlit  night,  our  backs  to  the  Southern  Cross 
and  our  faces  toward  the  Great  Bear;  for  we  were  march- 
ing northward  and  homeward.  The  drum  throbbed  and 
muttered  as  we  walked,  on  and  on,  along  the  dim  trail. 
At  last  the  stars  began  to  pale,  the  gray  east  changed  to 
opal  and  amber  and  amethyst,  the  red  splendor  of  the 
sunrise  flooded  the  world,  and  to  the  heat  of  the  night 
succeeded  the  more  merciless  heat  of  the  day.  Higher  and 
higher  rose  the  sun.  The  sweat  streamed  down  our  faces, 
and  the  bodies  of  the  black  men  glistened  like  oiled  iron. 
We  might  halt  early  in  the  forenoon,  or  we  might  have 
to  march  until  noon,  according  to  the  distance  from  water- 
hole  to  waterhole. 

Occasionally  in  the  afternoons,  and  once  when  we 
halted  for  a  day  to  rest  the  porters,  Kermit  and  I  would 
kill  buck  for  the  table — hartebeest,  reedbuck,  and  oribi. 
I  also  killed  a  big  red  ground  monkey,  with  baboon-like 
habits;  we  had  first  seen  the  species  on  the  Uasin  Gishu, 
and  had  tried  in  vain  to  get  it,  for  it  was  wary,  never  sought 
safety  in  trees,  and  showed  both  speed  and  endurance  in 
running.  Kermit  killed  a  bull  and  a  cow  roan  antelope. 
These  so-called  horse  antelope  are  fine  beasts,  light  roan  in 
color,  with  high  withers,  rather  short  curved  horns,  huge 
ears,  and  bold  face  markings.  Usually  we  found  them 
shy,  but  occasionally  very  tame.    They  are  the  most  trucu- 


508  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

lent  and  dangerous  of  all  antelope;  this  bull,  when  seem- 
ingly on  the  point  of  death,  rose  like  a  flash  when  Kermit 
approached  and  charged  him  full  tilt;  Kermit  had  to  fire 
from  the  hip,  luckily  breaking  the  animal's  neck. 

On  the  same  day  Loring  had  an  interesting  experience 
with  one  of  the  small  cormorants  so  common  in  this 
region.  Previously,  while  visiting  the  rapids  of  the  Nile 
below  Nimule,  I  had  been  struck  by  the  comparative 
unwariness  of  these  birds,  one  of  them  repeatedly  landing 
on  a  rock  a  few  yards  away  from  me,  and  thence  slipping 
unconcernedly  into  the  swift  water — and,  by  the  way,  it 
was  entirely  at  home  in  the  boiling  rapids.  But  the  con- 
duct of  Loring's  bird  was  wholly  exceptional.  He  was 
taking  a  swim  in  a  pool  when  the  bird  lit  beside  him.  It 
paid  no  more  heed  to  the  naked  white  man  than  it  would 
have  paid  to  a  hippo,  and  although  it  would  not  allow 
itself  to  be  actually  touched,  it  merely  moved  a  few  feet  out 
of  his  way  when  he  approached  it.  Moreover  it  seemed  to 
be  on  the  lookout  for  enemies  in  the  air,  not  in  the  water. 
It  was  continually  glancing  upward,  and  when  a  big  hawk 
appeared,  followed  its  movements  with  close  attention. 
It  stayed  in  and  about  the  pool  for  many  minutes  before 
flying  ofi^.  I  suppose  that  certain  eagles  and  hawks  prey 
on  cormorants;  but  I  should  also  be  inclined  to  think  that 
crocodiles  at  least  occasionally  prey  on  them. 

The  very  most  attractive  birds  we  met  in  middle  Africa 
and  along  the  Nile  were  the  brave,  cheery  little  wagtails. 
They  wear  trim  black-and-white  suits,  when  on  the  ground 
they  walk  instead  of  hopping,  they  have  a  merry,  pleasing 
song,  and  they  are  as  confiding  and  fearless  as  they  are 
pretty.  The  natives  never  molest  them,  for  they  figure  to 
advantage  in  the  folklore  of  the  various  tribes.  They  came 
round  us  at  every  halting  place,  entering  the  rest-houses  in 
Uganda  and  sometimes  even  our  tents,  coming  up  within 
a  few  feet  of  us  as  we  lay  under  trees,  and  boarding 
our  boats  on  the  Nile;  and  they  would  stroll  about  camp 
quite    unconcernedly,    in    pairs,    the    male    stopping   every 


DOWN   TIIK    MLK;   'VUK   (IIAXT    KLAM) 


.■>09 


now  and  then  to  sin^.  Except  the  whiskey  jacks  and 
Hudsonian  chickadees  of  the  North  Woods  I  never  saw 
such  tame  little  birds. 

At  Gondokoro  we  met  the  boat  w  hich  the  Sirdar,  Major- 
General  Sir  Reginald  Wingate,  had  sent  to  take  us  down 
the  Nile  to  Khartoum;  for  he,  and  all  the  Soudan  officials 
— including  especially  Colonel  Asset,  Colonel  Owen,  Slatin 
Pasha,    and    Butler    Bey   -treated    us   with    a    courtesy   for 


Arrival  at  Gondokoro 
From  a  pholograph  by  J.  Aldcn  Loring 


which  I  cannot  too  strongly  express  my  appreciation.  In 
the  boat  we  were  to  have  met  an  old  friend  and  fellow- 
countryman,  Leigh  Hunt;  to  our  great  regret  he  could 
not  meet  us,  but  he  insisted  on  treating  us  as  his  guests, 
and  on  our  way  down  the  Nile  we  felt  as  if  we  were  on  the 
most  comfortable  kind  of  yachting  trip;  and  everything 
was  done  for  us  by  Captain  Middleton,  the  Scotch  engi- 
neer in  charge. 

Nor  was  our  debt  only  to  British  officials  and  to  Ameri^ 
can  friends.  At  Gondokoro  I  was  met  by  M.  Ranquet,  the 
Belgian  Commandant  of  the    Lado  district,  and  both  he 


510  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

and  M.  Massart,  the  Chef  de  Poste  at  Redjaf,  were  kind- 
ness itself,  and  aided  us  in  every  way. 

From  Gondokoro  Kermit  and  I  crossed  to  Redjaf,  for 
an  eight  days'  trip  after  the  largest  and  handsomest,  and  one 
of  the  least  known,  of  African  antelopes,  the  giant  eland. 
We  went  alone,  because  all  the  other  white  men  of  the 
party  were  down  with  dysentery  or  fever.  We  had  with  us 
sixty  Uganda  porters  and  a  dozen  mules  sent  us  by  the 
Sirdar,  together  with  a  couple  of  our  little  riding  mules, 
which  we  used  now  and  then  for  a  couple  of  hours  on  safari, 
or  in  getting  to  the  actual  hunting  ground.  As  always 
when  only  one  or  two  of  us  went,  or  when  the  safari  was 
short,  we  travelled  light,  with  no  dining-tent  and  nothing 
unnecessary  in  the  way  of  baggage;  the  only  impedimenta 
which  we  could  not  minimize  were  those  connected  with 
the  preservation  of  the  skins  of  the  big  animals,  which,  of 
course,  were  throughout  our  whole  trip  what  necessitated 
the  use  of  the  bulk  of  the  porters  and  other  means  of 
transportation  employed. 

From  the  neat  little  station  of  Redjaf,  lying  at  the  foot 
of  the  bold  pyramidal  hill  of  the  same  name,  we  marched 
two  days  west,  stopping  short  of  the  river  Koda,  where 
we  knew  the  game  drank.  Now  and  then  we  came  on 
flower-bearing  bushes,  of  marvellously  sweet  scent,  like 
gardenias.  It  was  the  height  of  the  dry  season;  the  coun- 
try was  covered  with  coarse  grass  and  a  scrub  growth  of 
nearly  leafless  thorn-trees,  usually  growing  rather  wide 
apart,  occasionally  close  enough  together  to  look  almost 
like  a  forest.  There  were  a  few  palms,  euphorbias,  and 
very  rarely  scattered  clumps  of  withered  bamboo,  and  also 
bright  green  trees  with  rather  thick  leaves  and  bean  pods, 
on  which  we  afterward  found  that  the  eland  fed. 

The  streams  we  crossed  were  dry  torrent  beds,  sandy 
or  rocky;  in  two  or  three  of  them  were  pools  of  stagnant 
water,  while  better  water  could  be  obtained  by  digging  in 
the  sand  alongside.  A  couple  of  hours  after  reaching  each 
camp  everything  was  in  order,  and  Ali  had  made  a  fire  of 


DOWN  THE  NILE;  THE   GIANT  ELAND 


511 


some  slivers  of  wood  and  boi'ed  our  tea;  and  our  two 
meals,  breakfast  and  dinner,  were  taken  at  a  table  in  the 
open,  under  a  tree. 

We  had  with  us  seven  black  soldiers  of  the  Belgian 
native  troops,  under  a  corporal;  they  came  from  every 
quarter  of  the  Congo,  but  several  of  them  could  speak 
Swahili,  the  lingua  franca  of  middle  Africa,  and  so  Kermit 
could    talk   freely   with   them.     These    black   soldiers    be- 


The  return  to  Redjaf,  Belgian  askari  in  the  rear 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


haved  excellently,  and  the  attitude,  both  toward  them  and 
toward  us,  of  the  natives  in  the  various  villages  we  came 
across  was  totally  incompatible  with  any  theory  that  these 
natives  had  suffered  from  any  maltreatment;  they  behaved 
just  like  the  natives  in  British  territory.  There  had  to  be 
the  usual  parleys  with  the  chiefs  of  the  villages  to  obtain 
food  for  the  soldiers  (we  carried  the  posho  for  our  own 
men),  and  ample  payment  was  given  for  what  was  brought 
in;  and  in  the  only  two  cases  where  the  natives  thought 
themselves  aggrieved  by  the  soldiers,  they  at  once  brought 
the  matter  before  us.     One  soldier  had  taken  a  big  gourd 


512  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

of  water  when  very  thirsty;  another,  a  knife  from  a  man 
who  was  misbehaving  himself.  On  careful  inquiry,  and 
delivering  judgment  in  the  spirit  of  Solomon,  we  decided 
that  both  soldiers  had  been  justified  by  the  provocation 
received;  but  as  we  were  dealing  with  the  misdeeds  of 
mere  big  children,  we  gave  the  gourd  back  to  its  owner 
with  a  reprimand  for  having  refused  the  water,  and  per- 
mitted the  owner  of  the  knife,  whose  offence  had  been 
more  serious,  to  ransom  his  property  by  bringing  in  a 
chicken  to  the  soldier  who  had  it. 

The  natives  lived  in  the  usual  pointed  beehive  huts  in 
unfenced  villages,  with  shambas  lying  about  them;  and 
they  kept  goats,  chickens,  and  a  few  cattle.  Our  perma- 
nent camp  was  near  such  a  village.  It  was  interesting 
to  pass  through  it  at  sunrise  or  sunset,  when  starting  on  or 
returning  from  a  hunt.  The  hard,  bare  earth  was  swept 
clean.  The  doors  in  the  low  mud  walls  of  the  huts  were 
but  a  couple  of  feet  high  and  had  to  be  entered  on  all-fours; 
black  pickaninnies  scuttled  into  them  in  wild  alarm  as  we 
passed.  Skinny,  haggard  old  men  and  women,  almost 
naked,  sat  by  the  fires  smoking  long  pipes;  the  younger 
men  and  women  laughed  and  jested  as  they  moved  among 
the  houses.  One  day,  in  the  course  of  a  long  and  fruitless 
hunt,  we  stopped  to  rest  near  such  a  village,  at  about  two 
in  the  afternoon,  having  been  walking  hard  since  dawn. 
We — I  and  my  gun-bearer,  a  black  askari,  a  couple  of 
porters,  and  a  native  guide — sat  down  under  a  big  tree  a 
hundred  yards  from  the  village.  Soon  the  chief  and  several 
of  his  people  came  out  to  see  us.  The  chief  proudly  wore 
a  dirty  jersey  and  pair  of  drawers;  a  follower  carried  his 
spear  and  the  little  wooden  stool  of  dignity  on  which  he 
sat.  There  were  a  couple  of  warriors  with  him,  one  a  man 
in  a  bark  apron  with  an  old  breech-loading  rifle,  the  other 
a  stark-naked  savage — not  a  rag  on  him — with  a  bow  and 
arrows;  a  very  powerfully  built  man  with  a  ferocious  and 
sinister  face.  Two  women  bore  on  their  heads,  as  gifts 
for  us,  one  a  large  earthenware  jar  of  water,  the  other  a 


DOWN  THE   NILE;  THE   GIANT  ELAND  513 

basket  of  ground-nuts.  They  were  tall  and  well-shaped. 
One  as  her  sole  clothing  wore  a  beaded  cord  around  her 
waist,  and  a  breechclout  consisting  of  half  a  dozen  long, 
thickly  leaved,  fresh  sprays  of  a  kind  of  vine;  the  other, 
instead  of  this  vine  breechclout,  had  hanging  from  her 
girdle  in  front  a  cluster  of  long-stemmed  green  leaves, 
and  behind  a  bundle  of  long  strings,  carried  like  a  horse's 
tail. 

The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  the  country,  far  and 
wide,  was  a  waste  of  barren  desolation.  The  flats  of  end- 
less thorn  scrub  were  broken  by  occasional  low  and  rugged 
hills,  and  in  the  empty  watercourses  the  pools  were  many 
miles  apart.  Yet  there  was  a  good  deal  of  game.  We  saw 
buffalo,  giraffe,  and  elephant;  and  on  our  way  back  to 
camp  in  the  evenings  we  now  and  then  killed  a  roan,  harte- 
beest,  or  oribi.  But  the  game  we  sought  was  the  giant 
eland,  and  we  never  fired  when  there  was  the  slightest 
chance  of  disturbing  our  quarry.  They  usually  went  in 
herds,  but  there  were  solitary  bulls.  We  found  that  they 
drank  at  some  pool  in  the  Koda  before  dawn  and  then 
travelled  many  miles  back  into  the  patched  interior,  feed- 
ing as  they  went;  and,  after  lying  up  for  some  hours  about 
mid-day,  again  moved  slowly  off,  feeding.  They  did  not 
graze,  but  fed  on  the  green  leaves,  and  the  bean  pods  of  the 
tree  of  which  I  have  already  spoken  and  of  another  tree. 
One  of  their  marked  habits — shared  in  some  degree  by 
their  forest  cousin,  the  bongo — was  breaking  the  higher 
branches  with  their  horns,  to  get  at  the  leaves;  they  thus 
broke  branches  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter  and  seven 
or  eight  feet  from  the  ground,  the  crash  of  the  branches 
being  a  sound  for  which  vC^e  continually  listened  as  we 
followed  the  tracks  of  a  herd.  They  were  far  more  wary 
than  roan,  or  hartebeest,  or  any  of  the  other  buck,  and  the 
country  was  such  that  it  was  difficult  to  see  more  than  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  ahead. 

It  took  me  three  hard  days'  work  before  I  got  my  eland. 
Each  day  I  left  camp  before  sunrise  and  on  the  first  two  I 

33 


6U  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

came  back  after  dark,  while  it  always  happened  that  at 
noon  we  were  on  a  trail  and  could  not  stop.  We  would 
walk  until  we  found  tracks  made  that  morning,  and  then 
the  gun-bearers  and  the  native  guide  would  slowly  follow 
them,  hour  after  hour,  under  the  burning  sun.  On  the 
first  day  we  saw  nothing;  on  the  next  we  got  a  moment's 
glimpse  of  an  eland,  trotting  at  the  usual  slashing  gait; 
I  had  no  chance  to  fire.  By  mid-afternoon  on  each  day  it 
was  evident  that  further  following  of  the  trail  we  were  on 
was  useless,  and  we  plodded  campward,  tired  and  thirsty. 
Gradually  the  merciless  glare  softened;  then  the  sun  sank 
crimson  behind  a  chain  of  fantastically  carved  mountains  in 
the  distance;  and  the  hues  of  the  afterglow  were  drowned 
in  the  silver  light  of  the  moon,  which  was  nearing  the 
full. 

On  the  third  day  we  found  the  spoor  of  a  single  bull  by 
eight  o'clock.  Hour  after  hour  went  by  while  the  gun- 
bearers,  even  more  eager  than  weary,  puzzled  out  the  trail. 
At  half-past  twelve  we  knew  we  were  close  on  the  beast, 
and  immediately  afterward  caught  a  glimpse  of  it.  Taking 
advantage  of  every  patch  of  cover  I  crawled  toward  it  on 
all-fours,  my  rifle  too  hot  for  me  to  touch  the  barrel,  while 
the  blistering  heat  of  the  baked  ground  hurt  my  hands. 
At  a  little  over  a  hundred  yards  I  knelt  and  aimed  at  the 
noble  beast;  I  could  now  plainly  see  his  huge  bulk  and 
great,  massive  horns,  as  he  stood  under  a  tree.  The  pointed 
bullet  from  the  little  Springfield  hit  a  trifle  too  far  back 
and  up,  but  made  such  a  rip  that  he  never  got  ten  5^ards 
from  where  he  was  standing;  and  great  was  my  pride  as 
I  stood  over  him,  and  examined  his  horns,  twisted  almost 
like  a  koodoo's,  and  admired  his  size,  his  finely  modelled 
head  and  legs,  and  the  beauty  of  his  coat. 

Meanwhile,  Kermit  had  killed  two  eland,  a  cow  on  the 
first  day,  and  on  the  second  a  bull  even  better  than,  al- 
though not  quite  so  old  as,  mine.  Kermit  could  see  game, 
and  follow  tracks,  almost  as  well  as  his  gun-bearers,  and 
in  a  long  chase  could  outrun  them.    On  each  day  he  struck 


DOWN  THE   NILE;   THE   GIANT   ELAND  .515 

the  track  of  a  herd  of  eland,  and  after  a  while  left  his  gun- 
bearers  and  porters,  and  ran  along  the  trail  accompanied 
only  by  a  native  guide.  The  cow  was  killed  at  two  hun- 
dred yards  with  a  shot  from  his  Winchester.  The  bull 
yielded  more  excitement.  He  was  in  a  herd  of  about  forty 
which  Kermit  had  followed  for  over  five  hours,  toward 
the  last  accompanied  only  by  the  wild  native;  at  one  point 
the  eland  had  come  upon  a  small  party  of  elephant,  and 
trotted  off  at  right  angles  to  their  former  course — Kermit 
following  them  after  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  the 
elephants  were  cows  and  half-grown  animals.  When  he 
finally  overtook  the  eland,  during  the  torrid  heat  of  the  early 
afternoon,  they  were  all  lying  down,  in  a  place  where  the 
trees  grew  rather  more  thickly  than  usual. 

Stalking  as  close  as  he  dared  he  selected  a  big  animal 
which  he  hoped  was  a  bull,  and  fired  three  shots  into  it; 
however,  it  ran,  and  he  then  saw  that  it  was  a  cow.  As 
the  rest  of  the  herd  jumped  up  he  saw  the  form  of  the 
master  bull  looming  above  the  others.  They  crossed  his 
front  at  a  slashing  trot,  the  cows  clustered  round  the  great 
bull;  but  just  as  they  came  to  a  little  opening,  they  opened 
somewhat,  giving  him  a  clear  shot.  Down  went  the  bull 
on  his  head,  rose,  received  another  bullet,  and  came  to  a 
stand-still.  This  was  the  last  bullet  from  the  magazine; 
and  now  the  mechanism  of  the  rifle  refused  to  work  or  to 
throw  the  empty  shell  out  of  the  chamber.  The  faithful 
Winchester,  which  Kermit  had  used  steadily  for  ten  months, 
on  foot  and  on  horseback,  which  had  suffered  every  kind 
of  hard  treatment  and  had  killed  every  kind  of  game,  with- 
out once  failing,  had  at  last  given  way  under  the  strain. 
While  Kermit  was  working  desperately  at  the  mechanism, 
the  bull,  which  was  standing  looking  at  him  within  fifty 
yards,  gradually  recovered,  moved  off  step  by  step,  and 
broke  into  a  slow  trot.  After  it  went  Kermit  as  hard  as 
he  could  go,  still  fussing  with  the  rifle,  which  he  finally 
opened,  and  refilled  with  five  cartridges.  Kermit  could 
just  about  keep  the  eland  in  sight,  running  as  hard  as  he 


516  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 

was  able;  after  a  mile  or  two  it  lay  down,  but  rose  as  he 
came  near,  and  went  off  again,  while  he  was  so  blown 
that  though,  with  four  shots,  he  hit  it  twice  he  failed  to  kill 
it.  He  now  had  but  one  bullet  left,  after  which  he  knew 
that  the  rifle  would  jam  again;  and  it  was  accordingly 
necessary  to  kill  outright  with  the  next  shot.  He  was 
just  able  to  keep  close  to  the  bull  for  a  half-mile,  then  it 


Giant  bull  eland 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 

halted;  and  he  killed  it.  Leaving  the  shenzi  by  the  car- 
cass, he  went  off  to  see  about  the  wounded  cow,  but  after 
an  hour  was  forced  to  give  up  the  chase  and  return,  so  as 
to  be  sure  to  save  the  bull's  skin.  The  gun-bearers  and 
another  shenzi  had  by  this  time  reached  the  dead  eland; 
they  had  only  Kermit's  canteen  of  water  among  them. 
One  of  the  shenzis  was  at  once  sent  to  camp  to  bring  back 
twenty  porters,  with  rope,  and  plenty  of  water;  and,  with 
parched  mouths,  Kermit  and  the  gun-bearers  began  to 
take  off  the  thick  hide  of  the  dead  bull.  Four  hours  later 
the  porters  appeared  with  the  ropes  and  the  water;    the 


DOWN   THE   NILE;   THE   GIANT   ELAND  517 

thirsty  men  drank  gallons;  the  porters  were  loaded  with 
the  hide,  head,  and  meat;  and  they  marched  back  to  camp 
by  moonlight. 

It  was  no  easy  job,  in  that  climate,  to  care  for  and  save 
the  three  big  skins;  but  we  did  it.  On  the  trip  we  liad 
taken,  besides  our  gun-bearers  and  tent  boys,  Magi,  the 
sais,  and  two  of  our  East  African  skinners,  Kiboko  and 
Merefu;  they  formed  in  the  safari  a  kind  of  chief-petty- 
officer's  mess,  so  to  speak.  They  were  all  devoted  to  their 
duties,  and  they  worked  equally  hard  whether  hunting  or 
caring  for  the  skins;  the  day  Kermit  killed  his  bull  he  and 
the  gun-bearers  and  skinners,  with  Magi  as  a  volunteer, 
worked  until  midnight  at  the  hide.  But  they  had  any 
amount  of  meat,  and  we  shared  our  sugar  and  tea  with 
them.  On  the  last  evening  there  was  nothing  to  do,  and 
they  sat  in  the  brilliant  moonlight  in  front  of  their  tents, 
while  Kassitura  played  his  odd  little  harp.  Kermit  and  I 
strolled  over  to  listen;  and  at  once  Kassitura  began  to 
improvise  a  chant  in  my  honor,  reciting  how  the  Bwana 
Makuba  had  come,  how  he  was  far  from  his  own  country, 
how  he  had  just  killed  a  giant  eland,  and  so  on  and  so  on. 
Meanwhile,  over  many  little  fires  strips  of  meat  were  dry- 
ing on  scaffolds  of  bent  branches,  and  askaris  and  por- 
ters were  gathered  in  groups,  chatting  and  singing;  while 
the  mighty  tree  near  which  our  tents  were  pitched  cast 
a  black  shadow  on  the  silver  plain.  Then  the  shenzis 
who  had  helped  us  came  to  receive  their  reward,  and  their 
hearts  were  gladdened  with  red  cloth  and  salt,  and  for 
those  whose  services  had  been  greatest  there  were  special 
treasures  in  the  shape  of  three  green  and  white  umbrellas. 
It  was  a  pleasant  ending  to  a  successful  hunt. 

On  our  return  to  Gondokoro  we  found  Cuninghame 
all  right,  although  he  had  been  obliged  single-handed  to 
do  the  work  of  getting  our  porters  safely  started  on  their 
return  march  to  Kampalla,  as  well  as  getting  all  the  skins 
and  skeletons  properly  packed  for  shipment.  Heller  had 
also  recovered,  and  had  gone  on  a  short  trip  during  which 


518 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


he  trapped  a  leopard  and  a  serval  at  the  same  carcass,  the 
leopard  killing  the  serval.  Dr.  Mearns  and  Loring  were 
both  seriously  sick;  so  was  the  district  commissioner, 
kind  Mr.  Haddon.  One  day  a  German  missionary  dined 
with  us;  the  next  he  was  dead,  of  black  water  fever.  An 
English  sportsman  whom  we  had  met  at  Nimule  had  been 
brought  in  so  sick  that  he  was  at  death's  door;  Dr. 
Mearns  took  care  of  him,  badly  off  though  he  himself  was. 


Bari  at  Mon<jalla 
From  a  photograph  by  EdiniDiii  Heller 


We  had  brought  with  us  a  ca^se  of  champagne  for  just 
such  emergencies;  this  was  the  first  time  that  we  made  use 
of  it. 

On  the  last  day  of  February  we  started  down  the  Nile, 
slipping  easily  along  on  the  rapid  current,  which  wound 
and  twisted  through  stretches  of  reeds  and  marsh  grass 
and  papyrus.  We  halted  at  the  attractive  station  of  Lado 
for  a  good-by  breakfast  with  our  kind  Belgian  friends, 
and  that  evening  we  dined  at  Mongalla  with  Colonel 
Owen,  the  chief  of  the  southernmost  section  of  the  Soudan. 
I  was  greatly  interested  in  the  Egyptian  and  Soudanese 
soldiers„  and  their  service  medals.     Many  of  these  medals 


DOWN  THE   NILE;  THE   (ilANT   ELAND 


519 


showed  that  their  owners  had  been  in  a  dozen  campaigns; 
some  of  the  native  officers  and  men  (and  also  the  Reis 
or  native  captain  of  our  boat,  by  the  way)  had  served 
in  the  battles  which  broke  forever  the  Mahdi's  cruel  power; 
two  or  three  had  been  with  Gordon.  They  were  a  fine- 
looking  set;  and  their  obvious  self-respect  was  a  good  thing 
to  see.  That  same  afternoon  I  witnessed  a  native  dance, 
and   was  struck  by  the  lack  of  men  of  middle-age;    in  all 


Troops  at  Mongalla 
From  a  photograph  ly  Edmund  Heller 


the  tribes  who  were  touched  by  the  blight  of  the  Mahdist 
tyranny,  with  its  accompaniments  of  unspeakable  horror, 
suffered  such  slaughter  of  the  then  young  men  that  the  loss 
has  left  its  mark  to  this  day.  The  English  when  they 
destroyed  Mahdism  rendered  a  great  service  to  humanity; 
and  their  rule  in  the  Soudan  has  been  astoundingly  suc- 
cessful and  beneficial  from  every  stand-point."^ 

W'e  steamed  onward  down  the  Nile;    sometimes  tying 

*  The  despotism  of  Mahdist  rule  was  so  revolting,  so  vilely  cruel  and  hideous,  that 
the  worst  despotism  by  men  of  European  blood  in  recent  times  seems  a  model  of 
humanity  by  comparison;  and  yet  there  were  nominal  "anti-militarists"  and  self- 
styled  "apostles  of  peace"  who  did  their  feeble  best  to  prevent  the  destruction  of 
this  infamy. 


520  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

up  to  the  bank  at  nightfall,  sometimes  steaming  steadily 
through  the  night.  We  reached  the  Sud,  the  vast  papyrus 
marsh  once  so  formidable  a  barrier  to  all  who  would  jour- 
ney along  the  river;  and  sunrise  and  sunset  were  beauti- 
ful over  the  endless,  melancholy  stretches  of  water  reeds. 
In  the  Sud  the  only  tree  seen  was  the  water-loving  am- 
batch,  light  as  cork.  Occasionally  we  saw  hippos  and  croc- 
odiles and  a  few  water  birds;  and  now  and  then  passed 
native  villages,  the  tall,  lean  men  and  women  stark  naked, 
and  their  bodies  daubed  with  mud,  grease,  and  ashes  to 
keep  off  the  mosquitoes. 

On  March  4th  we  were  steaming  slowly  along  the 
reedy,  water-soaked  shores  of  Lake  No,  keeping  a  sharp 
lookout  for  the  white-eared  kob  and  especially  for  the 
handsome  saddle-marked  lechwe  kob^ — which  has  been 
cursed  with  the  foolishly  inappropriate  name  of  "Mrs. 
Gray's  waterbuck." 

Early  in  the  morning  we  saw  a  herd  of  these  saddle- 
marked  lechwe  in  the  long  marsh  grass  and  pushed  the 
steamer's  nose  as  near  to  the  shore  as  possible.  Then 
Cuninghame,  keen-eyed  Kongoni,  and  I  started  for  what 
proved  to  be  a  five  hours'  tramp.  The  walking  was  hard; 
sometimes  we  were  on  dry  land,  but  more  often  In  water 
up  to  our  ankles  or  knees,  and  occasionally  floundering 
and  wallowing  up  to  our  hips  through  stretches  of  reeds, 
water-lilies,  green  water,  and  foul  black  slime.  Yet  there 
were  ant-hills  In  the  marsh.  Once  or  twice  we  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  game  in  small  patches  of  open  ground  cov- 
ered with  short  grass;  but  almost  always  they  kept  to  the 
high  grass  and  reeds.  There  were  with  the  herd  two  very 
old  bucks,  with  a  white  saddle-shaped  patch  on  the  withers, 
the  white  extending  up  the  back  of  the  neck  to  the  head; 
a  mark  of  their  being  in  full  maturity,  or  past  It,  for  on 
some  of  the  males,  at  least,  this  coloration  only  begins  to 
appear  when  they  seem  already  to  have  attained  their 
growth  of  horn  and  body,  their  teeth  showing  them  to  be 
five  or  six  years  old,  while  they  are  obviously  in  the  prime 


DOWN  THE  NILE;  THE   GIANT  ELAND  521 

of  vigor  and  breeding  capacity.  Unfortunately,  in  the 
long  grass  it  was  impossible  to  single  out  these  old  bucks. 
Marking  as  well  as  we  could  the  general  direction  of  the 
herd  we  would  steal  toward  it  until  we  thought  we  were 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  then  cautiously  climb  an  ant- 
hill to  look  about.  Nothing  would  be  in  sight.  We  would 
scan  the  ground  in  every  direction;  still  nothing.  Sud- 
denly a  dozen  heads  would  pop  up,  just  above  the  grass, 
two  or  three  hundred  yards  off,  and  after  a  steady  gaze 
would  disappear;  and  some  minutes  later  would  again 
appear  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther  on.  Usually  they  skulked 
off  at  a  trot  or  canter,  necks  stretched  level  with  the  back; 
for  they  were  great  skulkers,  and  trusted  chiefly  to  escap- 
ing observation  and  stealing  away  from  danger  unper- 
ceived.  But  occasionally  they  would  break  into  a  gallop, 
making  lofty  bounds,  clear  above  the  tops  of  the  grass; 
and  then  they  might  go  a  long  way  before  stopping.  I 
never  saw  them  leap  on  the  ant-hills  to  look  about,  as  is 
the  custom  of  the  common  or  Uganda  kob.  They  were 
rather  noisy;  we  heard  them  grunting  continually,  both 
when  they  were  grazing  and  when  they  saw  us. 

At  last,  from  an  ant-hill,  I  saw  dim  outlines  of  two  or 
three  animals  moving  past  a  little  over  a  hundred  yards 
ahead.  There  was  nothing  to  shoot  at;  but  a  moment 
afterward  I  saw  a  pair  of  horns  through  the  grass  tops,  in 
such  a  position  that  it  was  evident  the  owner  was  looking 
at  me.  I  guessed  that  he  had  been  moving  in  the  direction 
in  which  the  others  had  gone,  and  I  guessed  at  the  position 
of  the  shoulder,  and  fired.  The  horns  disappeared.  Then 
I  caught  a  glimpse,  first  of  a  doe,  next  of  a  buck,  in  full 
flight,  each  occasionally  appearing  for  an  instant  in  a  great 
bound  over  the  grass  tops.  I  had  no  idea  whether  or  not 
I  had  hit  my  buck;  so  Cuninghame  stayed  on  the  ant- 
heap  to  guide  us,  while  Kongoni  and  I  plunged  into  the 
long  grass,  as  high  as  our  heads.  Sure  enough,  there  was 
the  buck,  a  youngish  one,  about  four  years  old;  my  bullet 
had  gone  true.     While  we  were  looking  at  him  we   sud- 


522  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

denly  caught  a  momentary  glimpse  of  two  more  of  the 
herd  rushing  off  to  our  right,  and  we  heard  another  grunt- 
ing and  sneaking  away,  invisible,  thirty  yards  or  so  to  our 
left. 

Half  an  hour  afterward  I  shot  another  buck,  at  over 
a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  after  much  the  same  kind  of 
experience.  At  this  one  I  fired  four  times,  hitting  him  with 
three  bullets;  three  of  the  shots  were  taken  when  I  could 
only  see  his  horns  and  had  to  guess  at  the  position  of  the 
body.  This  was  a  very  big  buck,  with  horns  over  twenty- 
nine  inches  long,  but  the  saddle  mark  was  yellow,  with 
many  whitish  hairs,  showing  that  he  was  about  to  assume 
the  white  saddle  of  advanced  maturity.  His  stomach  was 
full  of  the  fine  swamp  grass. 

These  handsome  antelopes  come  next  to  the  situtunga 
as  lovers  of  water  and  dwellers  in  the  marshes.  They 
are  far  more  properly  to  be  called  "waterbuck"  than  are 
the  present  proprietors  of  that  name,  which,  like  the  ordi- 
nary kob,  though  liking  to  be  near  streams,  spend  most  of 
their  time  on  dry  plains  and  hill-sides.  This  saddle-marked 
antelope  of  the  swamps  has  the  hoofs  very  long  and  the 
whole  foot  flexible  and  spreading,  so  as  to  help  it  in  passing 
over  wet  ground  and  soft  mud;  the  pasterns  behind  are 
largely  bare  of  hair.  It  seems  to  be  much  like  the  lechwe,  a 
less  handsome,  but  equally  water-loving,  antelope  of  south- 
ern Africa,  which  is  put  in  the  same  genus  with  the  water- 
buck  and  kob. 

That  afternoon  Dr.  Mearns  killed  with  his  Winchester 
30-40,  on  the  wing,  one  of  the  most  interesting  birds  we 
obtained  on  our  whole  trip,  the  whale-billed  stork.  It 
was  an  old  male  and  its  gizzard  was  full  of  the  remains  of 
small  fish.  The  whalebill  is  a  large  wader,  blackish-gray 
in  color,  slightly  crested,  with  big  feet  and  a  huge,  swollen 
bill;  a  queer-looking  bird,  with  no  near  kinsfolk,  and  so 
interesting  that  nothing  would  have  persuaded  me  to  try  to 
kill  more  than  the  four  actually  needed  for  the  public 
(not  private)  museum  to  which  our  collections  were  going. 


DOWN  THE   NILE;   'J  HE   (;IAXT   ELAND  r/23 

It  is  of  solitary  habits  and  is  found  only  in  certain  vast, 
lonely  marshes  of  tropical  Africa,  where  it  is  conspicuous 
by  its  extraordinary  bill,  dark  coloration,  and  slu^j^ishness 
of  conduct,  hunting  sedately  in  the  muddy  shallows,  or 
standing  motionless  for  hours,  surrounded  by  reedbeds  or 
by  long  reaches  of  quaking  and  treacherous  ooze. 

Next  morning  while  at  breakfast  on  the  breezy  deck 
we  spied  another  herd  of  the  saddle-marked  lechwe,  in 
the  marsh  alongside;  and  Kermit  landed  and  killed  one, 
after  deep  wading,  up  to  his  chin  in  some  places,  and  much 
hard  work  in  the  rank  grass.  This  buck  was  interesting 
when  compared  with  the  two  I  had  shot.  He  was  appar- 
ently a  little  older  than  either,  but  not  aged;  on  the  con- 
trary, in  his  prime,  and  fat.  He  had  the  white  saddle-like 
mark  on  the  withers,  and  the  white  back  of  the  neck,  well 
developed.  Yet  he  was  smaller  than  either  of  mine,  and 
the  horns  much  smaller;  indeed  they  were  seven  inches 
shorter  than  my  longest  ones.  It  looks  as  if,  in  some  ani- 
mals at  least,  the  full  size  of  body  and  horns  were  reached 
before  the  wdiite  saddle  markings  are  acquired.  The  horns 
of  these  saddle-marked  lechwes  are,  relatively  to  the  body, 
far  longer  and  finer  than  in  other  species  of  the  genus;  just 
as  is  the  case  with  the  big  East  African  gazelle  when  com- 
pared with  other  gazelles. 

That  afternoon,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rohr,  which 
runs  into  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal,  I  landed  and  shot  a  good 
buck,  of  the  Vaughn's  kob;  which  is  perhaps  merely  a 
subspecies  of  the  white-eared  kob.  It  is  a  handsome  ani- 
mal, handsomer  than  its  close  kinsman,  the  common  or 
Uganda  kob;  although  much  less  so  than  its  associate,  the 
saddle-marked  lechwe.  Its  hooves  are  like  those  of  the  or- 
dinary kobs  and  waterbucks,  not  in  the  least  like  those 
of  the  saddleback;  so  that,  although  the  does  are  colored 
alike,  there  is  no  chance  of  mistaking  any  lechwe  doe  for 
any  true  kob  doe.  We  found  these  kobs  in  much  drier 
ground  than  the  saddlebacks,  and  therefore  they  were 
easier  to  get  at.     The  one  I  shot  was  an  old  ram,  accom- 


524  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

panied  by  several  ewes.  We  saw  them  from  the  boat,  but 
they  ran.  Cuninghame  and  I,  with  Kongoni  and  Gou- 
vimaH,  hunted  for  them  in  vain  for  a  couple  of  hours.  Then 
we  met  a  savage,  a  very  tall,  lean  Nuer.  He  was  clad  in 
a  fawn  skin,  and  carried  two  spears,  one  with  a  bright, 
sharp,  broad-bladed  head,  the  other  narrow-headed  with 
villainous  barbs.  His  hair,  much  longer  than  that  of  a 
west  coast  negro,  was  tied  back.  As  we  came  toward  him 
he  stood  on  one  leg,  with  the  other  foot  resting  against  it, 
and,  raising  his  hand,  with  fingers  extended,  he  motioned 
to  us  with  what  in  civilized  regions  would  be  regarded  as  a 
gesture  bidding  us  halt.  But  he  meant  it  as  a  friendly 
greeting,  and  solemnly  shook  hands  with  all  four  of  us, 
including  the  gun-bearers.  By  signs  we  made  him  under- 
stand that  we  were  after  game;  so  was  he;  and  he  led 
us  to  the  little  herd  of  kob.  Kongoni,  as  usual,  saw  them 
before  any  one  else.  From  an  ant-hill  I  could  make  out 
the  buck's  horns  and  his  white  ears,  which  he  was  con- 
tinually flapping  at  the  biting  flies  that  worried  him;  when 
he  lowered  his  head  I  could  see  nothing.  Finally,  he  looked 
fixedly  at  us;  he  was  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  off^  and  I 
had  to  shoot  standing  on  the  peak  of  the  ant-heap,  and 
aim  through  the  grass,  guessing  where  his  hidden  body 
might  be;  and  I  missed  him.  At  the  shot  the  does  went  off 
to  the  left,  but  he  ran  to  the  right,  once  or  twice  leaping 
high;  and  when  he  halted,  at  less  than  two  hundred  yards, 
although  I  could  still  only  see  his  horns,  I  knew  where  his 
body  was;  and  this  time  I  killed  him.  We  gave  most  of 
the  meat  to  the  Nuer.  He  was  an  utterly  wild  savage, 
and  when  Cuninghame  suddenly  lit  a  match  he  was  so 
frightened  that  it  was  all  we  could  do  to  keep  him  from 
bolting. 

Kermit  went  on  to  try  for  a  doe,  but  had  bad  luck, 
twice  killing  a  spike  buck  by  mistake,  and  did  not  get 
back  to  the  boat  until  long  after  dark. 

The  following  day  we  were  in  the  mouth  of  the  Bahr 
el  Ghazal.      It  ran  sluggishly  through  immense   marshes, 


DOWN   THE   NILE;   THE   (ilAXT    ELAM)  525 

which  stretched  back  from  tlic  river  for  miles  on  either 
hand,  broken  here  and  there  by  flats  of  sHghtly  higher 
land  with  thorn-trees.  The  whale-billed  storks  were  fairly 
common,  and  were  very  conspicuous  as  they  stood  on  the 
quaking  surface  of  the  marsh,  supported  by  their  long- 
toed  feet.  After  several  fruitless  stalks  and  much  follow- 
ing through  the  thick  marsh  grass,  sometimes  up  to  our 
necks  in  water,  I  killed  one  with  the  Springfield  at  a  dis- 
tance of  one  hundred  and  thirty  yards,  and  Kermit,  after 
missing  one  standing,  cut  it  down  as  it  rose  with  his  Win- 
chester 30-40.  These  whalebills  had  in  their  gizzards 
not  only  small  fish  but  quite  a  number  of  the  green  blades 
of  the  marsh  grass.  The  Arabs  call  them  the  ''  Father  of 
the  Shoe,"  and  Europeans  call  them  shoebills  as  well  as 
whalebills.  The  Bahr  el  Ghazal  was  alive  with  water-fowl, 
saddle-bill  storks,  sacred  and  purple  ibis,  many  kinds  of 
herons,  cormorants,  plover,  and  pretty  tree  ducks  which 
twittered  instead  of  quacking.  There  were  sweet-scented 
lotus  water-lilies  in  the  ponds.  A  party  of  waterbuck  cows 
and  calves  let  the  steamer  pass  within  fifty  yards  without 
running. 

We  went  back  to  Lake  No,  where  we  met  another 
steamer,  with  aboard  it  M.  Solve,  a  Belgian  sportsman,  a 
very  successful  hunter,  whom  we  had  already  met  at  Lado; 
with  him  were  his  wife,  his  sister,  and  his  brother-in-law, 
both  of  the  last  being  as  ardent  in  the  chase,  especially  of 
dangerous  game,  as  he  was.  His  party  had  killed  two 
whalebills,  one  for  the  British  Museum  and  one  for  the 
Congo  Museum.  They  were  a  male  and  female  who 
were  near  their  nest,  which  contained  two  downy  young; 
these  were  on  M.  Solve's  boat,  where  we  saw  them.  The 
nest  was  right  on  the  marsh  water;  the  birds  had  bent  the 
long  blades  of  marsh  grass  into  an  interlacing  foundation, 
and  on  this  had  piled  grass  which  they  had  cut  with  their 
beaks.  These  beaks  can  give  a  formidable  bite,  by  the 
way,  as  one  of  our  sailors  found  to  his  cost  when  he  rashly 
tried  to  pick  up  a  wounded  bird. 


526 


AFRICAN   (iAME  TRAILS 


I  was  anxious  to  get  a  ewe  of  the  saddle-back  lechwe 
for  the  museum,  and  landed  in  the  late  afternoon,  on  see- 
ing a  herd.  The  swamp  was  so  deep  that  it  took  an  hour's 
very  hard  and  fatiguing  wading,  forcing  ourselves  through 
the  rank  grass  up  to  our  shoulders  in  water  before  we  got 
near  them.     The  herd  numbered  about  forty  individuals; 

their  broad  trail 
showed  where  they 
had  come  through 
the  swamp,  and 
even  through  a 
papyrus  bed;  but 
we  found  them 
grazing  on  merely 
moist  ground, 
where  there  were 
ant-hills  in  the  long 
grass.  As  I  crept 
up  they  saw  me  and 
greeted  me  with  a 
chorus  of  croaking 
grunts;  they  are  a 
very  noisy  buck. 
I  shot  a  ewe,  and 
away  rushed   the 

Mr.  Roosevelt  with  the  Beiseniceps  rex,  or  whale-billed      hctd       thrOUgh      thc 
storiv,  at  Lake  No  i  .»»     1   ■„^ 

long  grass,  makmg 

From  a  pholugraph  hy  Kermil  Roosevelt  .  i    •     t  11 

a  noise  which  could 
have  been  heard  nearly  a  mile  oif,  and  splashing  and 
bounding  through  the  shallow  lagoons;  they  halted,  and 
again  began  grunting;  and  then  off  they  rushed  once  more. 
The  doe's  stomach  was  filled  with  tender  marsh  grass. 
Meanwhile,  Kermit  killed,  on  drier  ground,  a  youngish 
male  of  the  white-eared  kob. 

Next  morning  we  were  up  at  the  Bahr  el  Zeraf.  At  ten 
we  sighted  from  the  boat  several  herds  of  \\hite-eared  kob, 
and  Kermit  and  I  went  in  different  directions  after  them, 


DOWN    J  UK   NILE;    IIIK   CJIAXJ'   ELAM)  .527 

getting  four.  The  old  rams  were  very  handsome  animals 
with  coats  of  a  deep  rich  brown  that  was  almost  black, 
and  sharply  contrasted  black  and  white  markings  on  their 
faces;  but  it  was  interesting  to  see  that  many  of  the  younger 
rams,  not  yet  in  the  fully  adult  pelage,  had  horns  as  long 
as  those  of  their  elders.  The  young  rams  and  ewes  were 
a  light  reddish-yellow,  being  in  color  much  like  the  ewes 
of  the  saddle-back  lechwe;  and  there  was  the  usual  dis- 
proportion in  size  between  the  sexes.  With  each  flock  of 
ewes  and  young  rams  there  was  ordinarily  one  old  black 
ram;  and  some  of  the  old  rams  went  by  themselves.  The 
ground  was  so  open  that  all  my  shots  had  to  be  taken  at 
long  range.  In  habits  they  differed  from  the  saddle-back 
lechwes,  for  they  were  found  on  dry  land,  often  where  the 
grass  was  quite  short,  and  went  freely  among  the  thorn- 
trees;  they  cared  for  the  neighborhood  of  water  merely  as 
ordinary  waterbuck  or  kob  care  for  it. 

Here  we  met  another  boat,  with  aboard  it  Sir  William 
Garstin,  one  of  the  men  who  have  made  Egypt  and  the 
Soudan  what  they  are  to-day,  and  who  have  thereby  ren- 
dered an  incalculable  service,  not  only  to  England,  but  to 
civilization. 

We  had  now  finished  our  hunting,  save  that  once  or 
twice  we  landed  to  shoot  a  buck  or  some  birds  for  the 
table.  It  was  amusing  to  see  how  sharply  the  birds  dis- 
criminated between  the  birds  of  prey  which  they  feared 
and  those  which  they  regarded  as  harmless.  W^e  saw 
a  flock  of  guinea-fowl  strolling  unconcernedly  about  at 
the  foot  of  a  tree  in  which  a  fish  eagle  was  perched;  and 
one  evening  Dr.  Mearns  saw  some  guinea-fowl  go  to  roost 
in  a  bush  in  which  two  kites  had  already  settled  them- 
selves for  the  night,  the  kites  and  the  guineas  perching 
amiably  side  by  side. 

We  stopped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sobat  to  visit  the 
American  Mission,  and  were  most  warmly  and  hospitably 
received  by  the  missionaries,  and  were  genuinely  impressed 
by  the  faithful  work   they   are    doing,    under   such   great 


528 


AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 


difficulties  and  with  such  cheerfulness  and  courage.  The 
Medical  Mission  was  especially  interesting.  It  formed  an 
important  part  of  the  mission  work;  and  not  only  were 
the  natives  round  about  treated,  but  those  from  far  away 
also  came  in  numbers.    At  the  time  of  our  visit  there  were 


American    Mission,  Sobat    River 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


about  thirty  patients,  taking  courses  of  treatment,  who 
had  come  from  distances  varying  from  twenty-five  miles 
to  a  hundred  and  fifty. 

We  steamed  steadily  down  the  Nile.  Where  the  great 
river  bent  to  the  east  we  would  sit  in  the  shade  on  the  for- 
ward deck  during  the  late  afternoon  and  look  down  the 
long  glistening  water-street  in  front  of  us,  with  its  fringe 
of  reedbed  and  marshy  grassland  and  papyrus  swamp,  and 
the  slightly  higher  dry  land  on  which  grew  acacias  and 
scattered  palms.    Along  the  river  banks  and  inland  were 


DOWN   THE   NILE;   THE   GIANT   ELAND 


529 


villages  of  Shilluks  and  other  tribes,  mostly  cattle-owners; 
some  showing  slight  traces  of  improvement,  others  utter 
savages,  tall,  naked  men,  bearing  bows  and  arrows. 

Our  Egyptian  and  Nubian  crew  recalled  to  my  mind  the 
crew  of  the  daha- 
biah  on  which  as 
a  boy  I  had  gone 
up  the  Egyptian 
Nile  thirty-seven 
years  before;  es- 
pecially when  some 
piece  of  work  was 
being  done  by  the 
crew  as  they  chant- 
ed in  grunting 
chorus  *'  Ya  allah, 
ul  allah."  As  we 
went  down  the 
Nile  we  kept  see- 
ing more  and  more 
of  the  birds  which 
I  remembered,  one 
species  after  an- 
other appearing; 
familiar  cow  -  her- 
ons, crocodile  plo- 
ver, noisy  spur- 
wing  plover,  black- 
and-white  king- 
fishers, h  o  o  p  o  o  s, 

green  bee-eaters,  black-and-white  chats,  desert  larks,  and 
trumpeter  bullfinches. 

At  night  we  sat  on  deck  and  watched  the  stars  and  the 
dark,  lonely  river.  The  swimming  crocodiles  and  plung- 
ing hippos  made  whirl's  and  wakes  of  feeble  light  that 
glimmered  for  a  moment  against  the  black  water.  The 
unseen  birds  of  the   marsh  and  the  night  called  to  one 

34  ^ 


Slatin  Pasha,  from  the  roof  of    the  Khalifa's  palace, 
shows  how  he  made  his  escape  from  Omdurmaii 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


530  AFRICAN   GAME  TRAILS 

another  in  strange  voices.  Often  there  were  grass  fires, 
burning,  leaping  hnes  of  red,  the  lurid  glare  in  the  sky 
above  them  making  even  more  sombre  the  surrounding 
gloom. 

As  we  steamed  northward  down  the  long  stretch  of  the 
Nile  which  ends  at  Khartoum,  the  wind  blew  in  our  faces, 
day  after  day,  hard  and  steadily.  Narrow  reedbeds  bor- 
dered the  shore;  there  were  grass  flats  and  groves  of 
acacias  and  palms,  and  farther  down  reaches  of  sandy 
desert.  The  health  of  our  companions  who  had  been 
suffering  from  fever  and  dysentery  gradually  improved; 
but  the  case  of  champagne,  which  we  had  first  opened  at 
Gondokoro,  was  of  real  service,  for  two  members  of  the 
party  were  at  times  so  sick  that  their  situation  was  critical. 

We  reached  Khartoum  on  the  afternoon  of  March  14th, 
1 910,  and  Kermit  and  I  parted  from  our  comrades  of  the 
trip  with  real  regret;  during  the  year  we  spent  together 
there  had  not  been  a  jar,  and  my  respect  and  liking  for 
them  had  grown  steadily.  Moreover,  it  was  a  sad  parting 
from  our  faithful  black  followers,  whom  we  knew  we 
should  never  see  again.  It  had  been  an  interesting  and  a 
happy  year;  though  I  was  very  glad  to  be  once  more  with 
those  who  were  dear  to  me,  and  to  turn  my  face  toward  my 
own  home  and  my  own  people. 

Kermit's  and  my  health  throughout  the  trip  had  been 
excellent.  He  had  been  laid  up  for  three  days  all  told,  and 
I  for  five.  Kermit's  three  days  were  due,  two  to  tick  fever 
on  the  Kapiti  Plains,  one  probably  to  the  sun.  Mine  were 
all  due  to  fever;  but  I  think  my  fever  had  nothing  to  do 
with  Africa  at  all,  and  was  simply  a  recurrence  of  the  fever 
I  caught  in  the  Santiago  campaign,  and  which  ever  since 
has  come  on  at  long  and  irregular  intervals  for  a  day  or 
two  at  a  time.  The  couple  of  attacks  I  had  in  Africa  were 
very  slight;  by  no  means  as  severe  as  one  I  had  while  bear 
hunting  early  one  spring  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  One 
of  these  attacks  came  on  under  rather  funny  circumstances. 
It  was  at  Lake  Naivasha  on  the  day  I  killed  the  hippo 


DOWN   THE   Nir.E;  THE   GIANT   ELAND 


.531 


which  charged  the  boat.  We  were  in  the  steam  launch  and 
I  began  to  feel  badly,  and  knew  1  was  in  for  a  bout  of 
fever.  Just  then  we  spied  the  hippo  and  went  after  it 
in  the  row-boat.  I  was  anxious  to  hold  back  the  attack 
until  I  got  the  hippo,  as  when  shaking  with  a  chill  it  is  of 
course  very  difficult  to  take  aim.     1  just  succeeded,   the 


Mr.  Roosevelt  on  his  camel 
From  a  photograph  by  Kcrmil  KoosevcU 


excitement  keeping  me  steady;  and  as  soon  as  the  hippo 
was  dead  I  curled  up  in  the  boat  and  had  my  chill  in  peace 
and  comfort. 

There  are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  whether  any 
spirituous  liquors  should  be  drunk  in  the  tropics.  Per- 
sonally I  think  that  the  less  one  has  to  do  with  them  the 
better.  Not  liking  whiskey  I  took  a  bottle  of  brandy  for 
emergencies.  Very  early  in  the  trip  I  decided  that  even 
when  feverish  or  exhausted  by  a  hard  day's  tramp,  hot  tea 
did  me  more  good  than  brandy,  and  I  handed  the  bottle 
over  to  Cuninghame.  At  Khartoum  he  produced  it  and 
asked  what  he  should  do  with  it,  and  I  told  him  to  put  it  in 
the  steamer's  stores;  he  did  so,  after  finding  out  the  amount 
that  had  been  drunk,  and  informed  me  that  I  had  taken 
just  six  ounces  in  eleven  months. 


532  AFRICAN   GAME   TRAILS 


LIST  OF  GAME  SHOT  WITH  THE  RIFLE  DURING  THE  TRIP 

BY   T.    R.  BY    K.    R. 

Lion 9  8 

Leopard —  3 

Cheetah — •  7 

Hyena 5  4 

Elephant 8  3 

Square-mouthed  rhinoceros      ...  5  4 

Hook-Hpped  rhinoceros        ....  8  3 

Hippopotamus 7  i 

Wart-hog 8  4 

Common  zebra 15  4 

Big  or  Grevy's  zebra 5  5 

Giraffe 7  2 

Buffalo     .     .  6  '  4 

Giant  eland        i  2 

Common  eland 5  2 

Bongo —  2 

Kudu        —  2 

Situtunga —  i 

Bushbuck 

East  African        2  4 

Uganda  harnessed         .     .     .     .  i  2 

Nile  harnessed 3  3 

Sable —  3 

Roan 4  5 

Oryx 10  3 

Wildebeest 5  2 

Neuman's  hartebeest —  3 

Coke's  hartebeest        10  3 

Big  hartebeest 

Jackson's 14  7 

Uganda i  '  3 

Nilotic 8  4 

Topi 12  4 

Common  waterbuck        5  3 

Singsing  waterbuck 6  6 

Common  kob 10  6 

Vaughn's  kob I  2 

White-eared  kob 3  2 

Saddle-backed  lechwe  (Mrs.  Gray's)  3  I 

Bohor  reedbuck 10  4 

Chanler's  buck 3  4 

Impalla 7  5 


DOWN  THE   NILE;  THE   GIANT   ELAND  533 

UY    T.     K.  I5V     K.     K. 

Big  gazelle 

Granti 5                              3 

Roberts! 4                              6 

Notata         8                               I 

Thomson's  gazelle ii                         .9 

Gerenuk         3                              2 

Klipspringer i                               3 

Oribi    . 18                              c 

Duiker ^                              2 

Steinbuck      . 4                              / 

Dikdik I                              I 

Baboon —                             3 

Red  ground  monkey        i                            — 

Green  monkey        —                              i 

Black  and  white  monkey     ....  5                               4 

Serval        —                              I 

Jackal —                               I 

Aardwolf       , —                             i 

Rattel       —                             I 

Porcupine —                              2 

Ostrich 2                            — 

/^          I             1  /              •     N              ^      (i  on 

Great  bustard 4  (i  on  wino;)       2     ,         .     . 

Lesser  bustard        i                              i 

Kavirondo  crane 2  (on  wing)        — 

Flamingo —                              4 

Whale-headed  stork l                                l  (on  wing) 

Marabou i                               i 

Saddle-billed  stork i  (on  wing)         — 

Ibis  stork 2  (i  on  wing)     — 

Pelican i                           — 

Guinea-fowl 5                             5 

Francolin i                             2 

Fish  eagle —                              i 

Vulture — •                             2 

Crocodile      . i                             3 

Monitor —                             i 

Python 3                             I 

296                          216 
Grand  total 512 

In  addition  we  killed,  with  the  Fox  shot-gun,  Egyptian 
geese,  yellow-billed  mallards,  francolins,  spurfowl  and  sand 
grouse  for  the  pot,  and  certain  other  birds  for  specimens. 


534  AFRICAX   GAME  TRAILS 

Kermit  and  I  kept  about  a  dozen  trophies  for  ourselves; 
otherwise  we  shot  nothing  that  was  not  used  either  as  a 
museum  specimen  or  for  meat — usually  for  both  purposes. 
We  were  in  hunting  grounds  practically  as  good  as  any 
that  have  ever  existed;  but  we  did  not  kill  a  tenth,  nor  a 
hundredth  part  of  what  we  might  have  killed  had  we  been 
willing.  Ihe  mere  size  of  the  bag  indicates  little  as  to  a 
man's  prowess  as  a  hunter,  and  almost  nothing  as  to  the 
interest  or  value  of  his  achievement. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

I  WISH  to  thank  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Lord  Crewe  for  the  numerous 
courtesies  extended  to  me  by  the  British  officials  throughout  the  British 
possessions  in  Africa  ;  and  M.  Renkin  for  the  equal  courtesy  shown  me 
by  the  Belgian  officials  in  the  Lado. 

The  scientific  part  of  the  expedition  could  not  have  been  undertaken 
save  for  the  generous  assistance  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  Mr.  Oscar 
Straus,  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt,  and  certain  others,  to  all  of  whom  lovers  of  nat- 
ural history  are  therefore  deeply  indebted. 

I  owe  more  than  I  can  express  to  the  thoughtful  and  unwearied  con- 
sideration of  Mr.  F.  C.  Selous  and  Mr.  E.  N.  Buxton,  through  whom  my 
excellent  outfit  was  obtained. 

Mr.  R.  J.  Cuninghame,  assisted  in  East  Africa  by  Mr.  Leslie  J.  Tarl- 
ton,  managed  the  expedition  in  the  field;  and  no  two  better  men  for  our 
purposes  could  have  been  found  anywhere.  I  doubt  if  Mr.  Cuninghame's 
equal  in  handling  such  an  expedition  as  ours  exists;  I  know  no  one  else 
who  combines  as  he  does  the  qualities  which  make  a  first-class  explorer, 
guide,  hunter,  field-naturalist,  and  safari  manager.  Messrs.  Newland  and 
Tarlton,  of  Nairobi,  did  the  actual  work  of  providing  and  arranging  for 
our  whole  journey  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner. 


535 


APPENDIX  B 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  the  small  mammals  obtained  on  the 
trip,  except  certain  bats,  shrews,  and  rodents  which  it  is  not  possible  to 
identify  in  the  field;   even  some  of  these  identifications  are  not  final. 

LIST   OF    SMALL   MAMMALS 

UNGULATA— HOOFED   MAMMALS 

Procavia  mackinderi Alpine  Hyrax 

Procavia  brucei  maculaia Athi  Rock  Hyrax 

Procavia  (Dendrohyrax)  heltoni.      .      .      .  Kikuyu  Tree  Hyrax 

Procavia  {Dendrohyrax)  crawshayi  .  Alpine  Tree  Hyrax 

GLIRES— RODENTS 

Heliosciurus  kenice Kenia  Forest  Squirrel 

Paraxerus  bcehmi  emini Uganda  Striped  Squirrel 

Paraxerus  jacksoni Jackson  Forest  Squirrel 

Paraxerus  jacksoni  capitis Nairobi  Forest  Squirrel 

Euxerus  microdon  ftdvior Kenia  Ground  Squirrel 

Graphiurus  raptor Kenia  Dormouse 

Graphiurus  parvus     .      .      .      .      .      .      .  Pygmy  Dormouse 

Lophiomys  testudo Nandi  Maned  Rat 

Tatera  momhasce Mombasa  Gerbille 

Tatera  pothce Highland  Gerbille 

Tatera  jallax   .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .  Uganda  Gerbille 

Tatera  varia    .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .  Sotik  Gerbille 

Tatera  emini Nile  Gerbille 

Tatera  nigrita Dusky  Gerbille 

Dipodillus  harwoodi Pygmy  Gerbille 

Otomys  irroratus  orestes Alpine  Veldt  Rat 

Otomys  irroratus  iropicalis Masai  Veldt  Rat 

Dcndromus  nigrifrons Black-fronted  Tree  Mouse 

Dendromus  insignis Greater  Tree  Mouse 

Dendromus  whytei  pallescens      ....  Athi  Tree  Mouse 

Steatomys  athi East  African  Fat  Mouse 

Lophuromys  ansorgei Uganda  Harsh-furred  Mouse 

Lophuromys  aquilus Masai  Harsh -furred  Mouse 

Mus  (Leggada)  bellus East  African  Pygmy  Mouse 

Mus  {Leggada)  gratits Uganda  Pygmy  Mouse 

Mus  {Leggada)  sorellus Elgon  Pygmy  Mouse 

Mus  {Leggada)  triton  murillus  ....  Sooty  Pygmy  Mouse 

Mus  {Leggada)  triton  naivasha;       .      .      .  Naivasha  Pygmy  Mouse 

Epimys  hindei Masai  Bush  Rat 

Epimys  endorobce Small-footed  Forest  Mouse 

Epimys  jacksoni Uganda  Forest  Mouse 

Epimys  peromyscus Large-footed  Forest  Mouse 

Epimys  hildebranti Taita  Multimammate  Mouse 

Epimys  Uganda Uganda  Multimammate  Mouse 

Epimys  panya Masai  Multimammate  Mouse 

536 


APPENDIX   B 


537 


Epimys  nievenlris  uIcr 
Zelotomys  hildegardcc 
Thamnoniys  surdastcr  polionops 
Thamnomys  loringi    .... 
(Enomys  hypoxanlhus  hacchanlc 
Dasymus  helukus        .... 

Aconiys  wilsoni 

Arvicanlhis  ahyssinicus  nairobcc 
Arvicanthis  ahyssinicus  ruhcsccns 
Arvicanlhis  pidchcllus  )iiassaiciis 
Arvicanthis  barlxirus  albolinealus 
Arvicanlhis  pumilio  diminulus  . 
Arvicanlhis  dorsalis  maculosiis   . 
Pelomys  roosevelli       .... 
Saccostomus  umbrivenler 
Saccoslomus  mearnsi 
Tachyorycles  anncclcns     . 
Tachyoryctes  splendens  ibeamis 
Tachyorycles  rex   . 
Myoscalops  kapili 
Pedetes  surdasler  . 
Hyslrix  galeala     . 
Lepus  victories 


Athi  Rock  Mouse 
Broad-headed  Bush  Mouse 
Athi  Tree  Rat 
Ma.skcd  Tree  Rat 
Rusty-nosed  Rat 
East  African  Swamp  Rat 
East  African  Sfjiny  Mouse 
Athi  Grass  Rat 
Uganda  Grass  Rat 
Spotted  Grass  Rat 
Striped  Grass  Rat 
Pygmy  Grass  Rat 
Single  Striped  Grass  Rat 
Iridescent  Creek  Rat 
Sotik  Pouched  Rat 
Swahili  Pouched  Rat 
Rift  Valley  Mole  Rat 
Nairobi  Mole  Rat 
Alpine  Mole  Rat 
Masai  Blesmol 
East  African  Springhaas 
East  African  Porcupine 
East  African  Hare 


FER.E— CARNIVORES 

Hycena  striata  schillingsi Masai  Striped  Hyena 

Hycena  crocuta  germinans East  African  Spotted  Hyena 

Proteles  cristatus  seplentrionalis       .      .      .  Somali  Aardwolf 

Genetla  betloni East  African  Genet 

Crossarchus  jascialus  macrurus        .      .      .  Uganda  Banded  Mongoose 

Mungos  sanguienus  ibece Kikuyu  Lesser  Mongoose 

Mungos  albicaudus  ibeanus Masai  White-tailed  Mongoose 

Canis  mesomelas Black-backed  Jackal 

'  Canis  variegatus .      .  Silver-backed  Jackal 

Lycaon  piclus  lupinus East  African  Hunting  Dog 

Otocyon  virgatns Masai  Great-eared  Fox 

Mellivora  ratel Cape  Honey  Badger 

INSECTIVORA— INSECTIVORES 

Nasilio  brachyrhynchus  delamerei   .      .      .  Athi  Lesser  Elephant  Shrew 

Elephantulus  pulcher East  African  Elephant  Shrew 

Erinaceus  albivenlris White-bellied  Hedgehog 

Crocidura  flavescens  myansce.       ....  Giant  Shrew 

Crocidura  alchemillcB Alpine  Shrew 

Crocidura  fumosa .  Dusky  Shrew 

Crocidura  argenlata  fisheri Veldt  Shrew 

Crocidura  bicolor  elgonius Elgon  Pygmy  Shrew 

Crocidura  allex Rift  Valley  Pygmy  Shrew 

Surdisorex  noree Short-tailed  Shrew 

CHIROPTERA— BATS 

Scolophilus  nigrila  colias       .      .      .      .      .  Kikuyu  Green  Bat 

Pipistrellus  kuhlii  fuscalus Naivasha  Pygmy  Bat 


538 


APPENDIX  B 


Nyctinomus  hindei    .... 

Lavia  jrons 

Lavia  jrons  afjinis      .... 

Pftalin  thrhaica 

Rhinolophus  hildchrandii  rlixjuciis 
Hipposidcrus  cajjcr  centralis 


PRIMATES— MONKEYS 


Galago  (Ololemur)  lasiotis     . 

Papio  ibeanus 

Cercoccbus  albigcna  johnsloni 
Erythroccbus  jormosus 
Cercopiihecus  ascanius  schmidti 
Cercopithecus  pygerythrus  johnsloni 
Cercopiihecus  kolbi     .... 
Cercopiihecus  kolbi  hindei 
Colobus  abyssinicus  caudatus 
Colobus  abyssinicus  malschiei     . 
Colobus  pallialus  colloni 


Ercr  tailed  Bat 

East  African  Great-eared  Bat 

Nile  (ireat-eared  Bat 

Nile  Wrinkle-nosed  Bat 

lOlf^cjn  Horseshoe  Bat 

Uganda  Leaf-nosed  Bat 


Mombasa  Lemur 
East  African  Baboon 
Uganda  Mangabey 
Uganda  Patas  Monkey 
Uganda  White-nosed  Monkey 
Masai  Green  Monkey 
Kikuyu  Forest  Green  Monkey 
Kenia  Forest  Green  Monkey 
White-tailed  Colobus  Monkey 
Uganda  Colobus  Monkey 
Nile  Colobus  Monkey 


LIST    OF    LARGE    MAMMALS 

UNGULATA— HOOFED   MAMMALS 

Diceros  simus  colloni Nile  Square-nosed  Rhinoceros 

Diceros  bicornis Black  Rhinoceros 

Equus  burchelli  granli Northern  Burchell  Zebra 

Equus  grevyi Grevy  Zebra 

Hippopolamus  amphibius Nile  Hippopotamus 

Polamochoerus  choeropolamus  dccmonis  .      .  East  African  Bush  Pig 

Hylochcerus  meinertzhageni East  African  Forest  Hog 

Phacochcerus  cethiopicus  massaicus  .      .      .  East  African  Wart  Hog 

Bos  cafjer  radclifjei East  African  Buffalo 

Bos  cequinoclialis .      .  Abyssinian  Buffalo 

Taurolragus  oryx  livingslonii     ....  East  African  Eland 

Taurolragus  gigas Giant  Eland 

Boocercus  isaaci East  African  Bongo 

Slrepsiceros  slrepsiceros Greater  Koodoo 

Tragelaphus  scriplus  heywoodi  ....  Aberdare  Bushbuck 

Tragelaphtcs  scriplus  dama Kavirondo  Bushbuck 

Tragelaphus  scriplus  bor Nile  Bushbuck 

Limnolragus  spekii Uganda  Situtunga 

Ozanna  roosevelli Roosevelt  Sable  Antelope 

Ozanna  equinus  langheldi East  African  Roan  Antelope 

Ozanna  equinus  bakeri    .  ...  Nile  Roan  Antelope 

Oryx  beisa  anneclens East  African  Beisa 

Gazella  granli Grant  Gazelle 

Gazclla  granli  roberlsi Nyanza  Grant  Gazelle 

Gazella  granli  nolala Boran  Grant  Gazelle 

Gazclla  lho;nsoni Thomson  Gazelle 

Lilhocranius  walleri Gerenuk  Gazelle 

Mpyceros  melampus  siiara Impalla 

Redunca  jidvoriijula  chanleri      ....  East  African  Rock  Reedbuck 


APPFADIX    B 


53d 


Ralnnca  rcdunca  uuinli 
Rcdunca  red  it  ma  tloittildsiini 
Kobtis  liob  Ihoiuasi 
Kobus  vauf^lunii    .... 

Kobus  leucolis 

Kobus  dcjassa  ugandcr 
Kobus  drjiissa  luiruuri 
Kobus  rllipsipryimius 

Kobus  niariu 

Ccphaloplius  abyssiiiicus  Liiidti 
Cephalophus  abyssiiiicus  nv.nisc 
Cephalophus  i^uijrr   . 
Notolragus  neumaniii 
Ourebia  monlaua  .... 
Ourebia  colloiti      .... 
Rhyncholrai^us  kirki  liiudd  . 
Orrolrai^us  schilliiii^si 
Connocluelcs  albojubalus  . 
Damaliscus  corrigum  jimtla  . 
Btibalis  jacksoni    .... 
Btibalis  jacksoni  insignis 

Bubalis  cokei 

Btibalis  neumanni 
Bubalis  Iclwd  niediecki    . 
Girafja  reticulata  .... 
Girafja  camclopardalis  tippdskir 
Girafja  camclopardalis  rothsciiiU. 
Elcphas  ajricanus  pceli   . 


hi. 


Hij^liland  liolior  Rccdbutk 

I'j^anrla  Holior  Rccdbuck 

Kavirondo  Kob 

Rufous  WliiU'-cartil  KmIi 

Wliilc-cart-ci  Kob 

Uganda  I)ofa.s.sa  Watcrbuck 

Wliilc  Nile  Difa.ssa  Watcrbuck 

I'la.sl  .African  Walcrljuck 

White- withcri-(I  \\'atcrl)U(  k 

Ma.sailan(i  Duiki-rbok 

Kavirondo  l)uikcrl)ok 

Rufous  I'orcsl  Duikerbok 

Ka.st  -African  Stein bok 

Abyssinian  Oribi 

Ouas  Nf^ishu  Oribi 

Masai  Dikdik 

Ka.st  African  Klip.springer 

Wtiite-bearded  Wildebeest 

East  .African  Topi 

Jackson  Hartebeest 

Uganda  Hartebee.st 

Kongoni  Hartebeest 

Neumann  Hartebeest 

White  .\ilc  Hartebeest 

Somali  (liraffe 

Masailand  (liraffc 

Five-horned  (iiraffe 

British  East  African  Elephant 


FER.«— CARNIVORES 

Felis  leo  massaica East  African  Eion 

.       Felis  pardus  suahelica East  African  Leopard 

Felis  capensis  hiiidei  .....  East  African  Ser\'al  Cat 

Cyncelurus  jubatus  giiUatus African  Cheetah 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  those  species  obtained  by  Heller 
concerning  which  he  (and  occasionally  I)  could  make  observations  as 
to  their  life  histories.  In  the  comparisons  with  or  allusions  to  our  Amer- 
ican species  there  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  no  implication  of  kinship;  the 
differences  are  generally  fundamental,  and  I  speak  of  the  American 
animals  only  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  familiar  standard  of  compari- 
son. The  central  African  fauna  is  of  course  much  more  nearh'  allied  to 
that  of  Europe  than  to  that  of  North  A^merica,  and  were  I  familiar  with 
small  European  mammals,  I  should  use  them,  rather  than  the  American, 
for  purposes  of  illustration. 

Heliosciurus  kenice  (Kenia  Forest  Squirrel).  Mount  Kenia,  B.  E.  A.  Heller  shot 
one  in  a  tr^e  in  the  heavy  forest  by  our  first  elephant  camp.  In  size  and  ac- 
tions like  our  gray  squirrel.     Shy. 

Paraxerus  jacksoni.  Shot  at  same  camp;  common  at  Nairobi  and  Kijabe,  B.  E.  A. 
A  little  smaller  than  our  red  squirrel;  much  less  noisy  and  less  vivacious  in 
action.    Tamer  than  the  larger  squirrel,  but  much  shyer  than  our  red  squirrel  or 


540  APPENDIX  B 

chickaree.  Kept  among  the  bushes  and  lower  limbs  of  the  trees.  Local  in 
distribution;  found  in  pairs  or  small  families. 

Graphiurus  parvtis  (Pygmy  Dormouse).  Everywhere  in  B.  E.  A.  in  the  forest; 
arboreal,  often  descending  to  the  ground  at  night,  for  they  are  strictly  nocturnal. 
Found  in  the  woods  fringing  the  rivers  in  the  Sotik  and  on  the  Athi  Plains,  but 
most  common  in  the  juniper  forests  of  the  higher  levels.  Spend  the  daytime 
in  crevices  and  hollows  in  the  big  trees.  Build  round,  ball-like  nests  of  bark  fibre 
and  woolly  or  cottony  vegetable  fibre.  One  of  them  placed  in  a  hollow,  four 
inches  across,  in  a  stump,  the  entrance  being  five  feet  above  the  ground.  Caught 
in  traps  baited  with  walnuts  or  peanuts. 

Tatera  pothce  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Athi  Gerbille).  Common  on  the  Athi  Plains,  in  open 
ground  at  the  foot  of  the  hills.  Live  in  short  grass,  not  bush.  Nocturnal. 
Live  in  burrows,  each  burrow  often  possessing  several  entrances,  and  sometimes 
several  burrows,  all  inhabited  by  same  animal,  not  communicating. 

Tatera  varia  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Sotik  Gerbille).  A  large  form,  seemingly  new.  Lives 
in  the  open  plains,  among  the  grass;  not  among  bushes,  nor  at  foot  of  hills. 
Lives  in  burrows,  one  animal  apparently  having  several,  each  burrow  with  a 
little  mound  at  the  entrance.  Nocturnal.  In  aspect  and  habits  bears  much 
resemblance  to  our  totally  different  kangaroo  rats. 

Dipodillus  harwoodi  (Naivasha  Pygmy  Gerbille).  Common  around  Naivasha,  also 
in  Sotik.  A  small  form,  quarter  the  size  of  the  above;  about  as  big  as  a  house 
mouse.  Same  habits  as  above,  but  apparently  only  one  burrow  to  each  animal; 
much  more  plentiful.  The  burrows  in  the  Sotik  were  in  hard  ground  and  went 
straight  down.  Round  Naivasha  the  ground  was  soft  and  dry,  and  most  of  the 
burrows  entered  it  diagonally. 

Otomys  irroratus  tropicalis  (Veldt  Rat).  Generally  throughout  B.  E.  A.  but  always 
in  moist  places,  never  on  dry  plains.  Abundant  on  top  of  Aberdares,  and  ten 
thousand  feet  up  on  slopes  of  Kenia.  Always  in  open  grass.  Make  very  defi- 
nite trails  which  they  cut  with  their  teeth  through  the  grass.  Feed  on  the  grass 
which  they  cut  into  lengths  just  as  our  meadow  mice — mirotus — do.  Largely 
diurnal,  but  also  run  about  at  night.  The  gravid  females  examined  had  in  each 
of  them  two  embryos  only.  Live  in  burrows,  in  which  they  place  nests  of  fine 
grass  six  inches  in  diameter. 

Dendromys  nigrojrons  (Black-fronted  Tree  Mouse).  On  Athi  Plains  and  on  the  Sotik. 
Size  of  our  harvest  mouse.  Do  not  go  into  forest,  but  dwell  in  bush  country 
and  thin  timber  along  streams.  Nocturnal;  not  abundant.  Live  in  covered 
nests  in  bushes;  nests  made  of  long  wiry  grass,  not  lined,  and  very  small,  less 
than  three  inches  in  diameter.  They  are  globular,  and  entered  by  a  hole  in  one 
side,  as  with  our  marsh  wrens.  Only  one  mouse  to  a  nest,  as  far  as  we  saw; 
Heller  caught  two  in  their  nests.  The  nests  were  in  thorn-bushes  only  about  a 
foot  and  a  half  from  the  ground;  once  or  twice  these  mice  were  found  in  what 
were  apparently  abandoned  weaver-birds'  nests.  If  frightened,  one  would  drop 
out  of  its  nest  to  the  ground  and  run  off;  but  if  Heller  waited  quietly  for  ten 
minutes  the  mouse  would  come  back,  climb  up  the  twigs  of  the  bush,  and  re-enter 
the  nest.    It  never  stayed  away  long,  seeming  to  need  the  nest  for  protection. 

Dendromys  insignis.  Although  belonging  to  the  genus  of  tree  mice  this  large  den- 
dromys lives  on  the  ground,  seemingly  builds  no  nest,  and  is  most  often  found 
in  the  runways  of  the  Otomys. 

Lophuromys  aquilus  (Harsh-furred  Mouse).  Common  in  Rift  Valley,  on  the  top 
of  the  Aberdares,  and  in  the  Kenia  forest.  Go  up  to  timber  line,  but  are  not 
found  in  the  deep  forest,  save  above  the  edges  of  the  stream.  Very  fond  of  brush. 
Do  not  go  out  on  the  grassy  plains.  Usually,  but  not  strictly,  nocturnal;  and  in 
the  cold,  foggy  uplands,  as  on  the  Aberdares,  become  diurnal. 


APPENDIX    B  541 

{Leggada)  Mus  gratus  (Pygmy  Harvest  Mouse).  As  small  as  our  smallest  harvest 
mouse.  A  grass  mouse,  usually  entirely  away  from  bushes  and  trees.  Usually 
taken  in  the  runways  of  the  larger  species.  Occa.sionally  come  into  tents.  Noc- 
turnal. Found  generally  throughout  East  Africa,  but  nowhere  as  abundant  as 
many  other  species. 

Epimys  hindei  (Masai  Bush  Rat).  Trapped  on  the  Kapiti  and  Athi  Plains.  About 
the  size  of  the  Southern  wood  rat  of  California;  almost  the  size  of  the  wood  rat 
of  the  Eastern  States.  Is  a  ground-loving  species,  fond  of  bushes;  in  habits  like 
the  Mus  panya;    but  less  widely  distributed,  and  entering  houses  less  freely. 

Epimys  peromyscus  Heller  (n.  s.)  African  White-footed  Mouse.  E.xternally  strik- 
ingly like  our  white-footed  mouse.  Found  in  thick  forest,  along  the  edges  of 
the  Rift  Valley  and  on  Mount  Kenia.  Near  our  elephant  camp  Heller  failed 
to  trap  any  white-footed  mice  in  the  open  glades,  even  when  the  glades  were 
of  small  size,  but  caught  them  easily  if  the  traps  were  set  only  a  few  yards 
within  the  dense  forest.  Evidently  very  abundant  in  the  forest,  but  not  ventur- 
ing at  all  into  the  open.  Strictly  nocturnal.  Dwell  under  logs  and  in  decayed 
places  around  stumps,  and  the  trunks  of  big  trees. 

Epimys  panya  (East  African  House  Mouse).  Common  in  B.  E.  A.,  coming  into 
the  houses,  and  acting  like  a  house  mouse,  but  twice  the  size.  Frequently  came 
into  our  camps,  entering  the  tents.  Very  common  on  the  edges  of  the  forest 
and  in  brush  country  and  long  grass,  and  among  the  shambas;  not  in  the  deep 
forests,  except  along  streams,  and  not  in  the  bare  open  plains.  Nocturnal. 
Found  in  the  runways  of  Otomys  and  Arvicanlhis.  Does  not  seem  to  be  a 
grass-feeding  species,  like  Otomys;   eats  grain,  beans,  etc. 

Epimys  nieventris  ulce  (Athi  Rock  Mouse).  On  the  Athi  Plains,  in  the  Sotik,  around 
Naivasha,  and  in  the  Rift  Valley.  Body  only  slightly  larger  than  that  of  a 
house  mouse,  but  tail  at  least  a  third  longer  than  the  head  and  body  together. 
Yellowish-brown  above  and  whitish  beneath.  Never  found  except  among 
rocks;  we  always  found  it  where  there  were  cliffs  or  on  stony  koppies.  Lives 
in  crevices  in  the  rocks  and  along  the  ledges  of  the  cliffs.  Nocturnal.  Caught 
in  traps  with  nuts. 

Zelotomys  hildegardcB  (Broad-headed  Bush  Mouse).  Looks  like  a  small-eared, 
broad-headed  house  mouse.  Rather  common  on  Athi  Plains,  in  same  localities 
with  Uganda  mouse,  but  rarer,  and  seldom  enters  houses. 

Thamnomys  surdaster  polionops  (Long-tailed  Tree  Mouse).  Arboreal;  more  like  a 
mouse  than  a  rat.  On  the  Athi  Plains,  in  the  Sotik  and  Rift  Valley.  Not 
found  in  heavy  forest,  but  in  the  open  acacia  woods  and  in  bushy  country. 
Apparently  lives  much  of  the  time  on  the  ground,  and  builds  no  nests  in  the 
trees,  but  runs  up  and  down  them  and  among  their  branches  freely.    Nocturnal. 

Thamnomys  Loringi  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Masked  Tree  Rat).  In  the  Rift  Valley;  common 
around  Naivasha.  Has  a  black  ring  around  each  eye,  the  color  spreading  over 
the  nose  like  a  mask.  Arboreal  and  nocturnal.  Much  the  habits  of  our  neo- 
toma,  but  do  not  build  large  nests.  Build  nests  about  six  inches  in  diameter, 
made  of  sticks,  placed  in  the  branches  of  the  thorn-trees;  also  in  burrows 
near  the  bottom  of  the  trunks;  runways  lead  from  the  trees  containing  the 
nests  to  the  burrows.  Trapped  on  the  ground  and  in  traps  set  in  notches  of 
the  trees. 

(Enomys  hypoxanthus  bacchante  (Rusty-nosed  Rat).  Found  in  same  country  as 
above,  and  with  similar  habits,  but  somewhat  less  arboreal.    A  handsome  species. 

Dasymus  helukus  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Swamp  Rat).  I''  appearance  much  like  the  Alex- 
andrian or  roof  rat,  but  with  longer  hair  an,'  '^orter,  much  less  conspicuous 
ears.  Found  all  over  the  Athi  Plains  where  tk  -  /as  brush,  especially  along 
stream  beds.     Nocturnal. 


542  APPENDIX  IB 

■Arvicanlhis  ahyssiniciis  nairobce  (Alhi  Grass  Rat).  The  commonest  mouse  in  B. 
E.  A.  on  the  plains.  Outnumbers  any  other  species.  Found  everywhere  in 
grass  and  brush,  but  not  in  deep  forest.  Often  lives  in  shallovi?  burrows  round 
the  bases  of  thorn-trees,  from  which  its  well-marked  runways  radiate  into  the 
grass.  Strictly  diurnal.  Often  seen  running  about  in  bright  sunlight.  Never 
found  in  traps  at  night.  A  striped  mouse  that  has  lost  its  stripes,  vestiges  of 
which  are  occasionally  found  in  the  young. 

Arvicanlhis  pulchellus  masaicus  (Nairobi  Striped  Mouse).  Diurnal.  Common  on 
the  Athi  Plains  and  on  the  Sotik  and  in  Rift  Valley.  Around  Neri  we  often  saw 
them  running  about  through  the  shambas.  Live  in  brush  and  cultivated  fields. 
In  pattern  of  coloration  much  like  our  thirteen-striped  gopher. 

Arvicanlhis  pumilio  diminulus  (Naivasha  Striped  Rat).  Common  in  Rift  Valley, 
and  on  the  Aberdares  and  around  Kenia.  Sometimes  occurs  in  company  will-. 
Nairobi  mouse,  but  less  widely  distributed;  much  more  abundant  where  found, 
and  ascends  to  much  higher  altitudes. 

Pelomys  roosevelti  Heller  (n.  s.)  About  the  size  of  our  cotton  rat,  and  with  much 
the  same  build.  Coarse,  bristly  hair;  the  dorsal  coloration  is  golden  yellow 
overlaid  by  long  hairs  with  an  olive  iridescence;  the  under  parts  are  silky  white. 
It  is  a  meadow  mouse  found  at  high  altitudes,  seven  to  nine  thousand  feet  high; 
usually  lives  close  to  streams  in  heavy  grass,  through  which  it  makes  runways. 
Not  common. 

Saccostomus  umbriventer  (Sotik  Pouched  Rat).  Heller  trapped  several  on  the 
Sotik  at  the  base  of  the  southernmost  range  of  mountains  we  reached.  Found 
in  the  longish  grass  along  a  dry  creek  bed.  Trapped  in  their  rather  indistinct 
runways.  The  pockets  or  pouches  are  internal;  not  external  as  in  cur  pocket 
mice. 

Tachyroycles  splendens  ibeanus  (Nairobi  Mcle  Rat).  A  mole  rat  of  B.  E.  A.  with  gen- 
eral habits  of  above,  but  avoiding  rocky  places,  and  not  generally  found  many 
miles  out  on  the  plains  away  from  the  forest.  Rarely  found  in  the  bamboos — ' 
in  spite  of  its  name. 

Myoscalops  kapili  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Kapiti  Blesmole).  On  the  Kapiti  and  Athi  Plains" 
and  in  the  Sotik.  Smaller  than  German  East  African  form  and  no  white  oc- 
cipital spot.  A  cinnamon  wash  on  its  silvery  fur.  Burrows  like  our  pocket  go- 
phers, and  has  same  squat  look  and  general  habits.  Lives  in  rocky  ground,  where 
bamboo  rat  does  not  penetrate.  It  does  not  run  just  below  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
as  the  pocket  gopher  does  in  winter.  The  blesmole's  burrows  are  about  a  foot 
below  the  surface.     Eats  roots. 

Pedetes  surdaster  (Springhaas).  (See  body  of  book.)  One  young  at  birth.  A 
colony  of  four  to  eight  open  burrows,  all  inhabited  by  a  single  animal. 

Hystrix  galeata.  (See  body  of  book.)  Heller  found  in  stomach  the  remains  of  a  root 
or  tuber  and  seeds  like  those  of  the  nightshade. 

Lepus  victoricB.  Generally  distributed  on  plains;  much  the  habits  and  look  of  a 
small  jack-rabbit.     Does  not  burrow. 

Elephantulus  pulcher  (Elephant  Shrew).  Fairly  common  throughout  B.  E.  A.  in 
bush  and  on  hills,  not  in  deep  forests  or  on  bare  plains.  Often  out  at  dusk, 
but  generally  nocturnal.  A  gravid  female  contained  a  single  embryo.  One 
in  a  trap  had  its  mouth  full  of  partly  masticated  brown  ants.  A  gentle  thing, 
without  the  fierceness  of  the  true  shrews.  Trapped  in  the  runways  of  arvi: 
canthis. 

Erinaceus  albiventris  (Hedgehog).  Fairly  common  in  the  Sotik.  In  certain  places 
under  trees  Heller  found  accumulations  of  their  spiny  skins,  as  if  some  bird 
of  prey  had  been  feeding  on  them. 


APPENDIX  B  54S 

Crocidiira  fisheri.  Tlic  commoa  shrew  cjf  the  Allii  Plains  and  the  Sotik  in  the 
Rift  Valley.  Largely  diurnal.  Males  quite  yellowish,  females  smoky  brown. 
Generally  trapix;d  in  runways  of  arvicanthis.  Pregnant  females  contained 
three  to  five  embryos,  usually  four.      Not  found  in  heavy  forest  or  swamp. 

Crocidura  jumosa  (Dusky  Shrew).  A  darker  form  found  in  the  rush  swamps  and 
sedgy  places  of  the  same  region.  Number  of  young  usually  three.  Diurnal. 
Occasional  in  forests. 

Crocidura  alchemilla  Heller  (n.s.).  Aberdare  shrew;  a  diurnal  form,  occurring 
above  timber  line  on  the  Aberdare;   perhaps  identical  with  the  foregoing.* 

Crocidura  allex.     A  pygmy  shrew,  taken  at  Naivasha. 

Crocidura  nyansce.  Very  big  for  a  shrew.  Chiefly  in  the  high  country,  near 
watercourses;  found  round  the  edge  of  the  forest,  at  Kenia  and  Kijabe.  A 
fierce,  carnivorous  creature,  preying  on  small  rodents  as  well  as  insects;  habit- 
ually ate  mice,  rats,  or  shrews  which  it  found  in  the  traps,  and  would  then 
come  back  and  itself  be  readily  trapped. 

Surdisorcx  norce.  A  shrew  in  shape  not  unlike  our  mole  shrew.  On  the  high,  cold, 
wet  Aberdare  plateau.     Diurnal. 

Scotophilus  migrita  colias.  Common  at  Nairobi;  flying  among  the  tree  tops  in  the 
evenings.  Greenish  back,  with  metallic  glint;  belly  sulphur.  Has  the  same 
flight  as  our  big  brown  bat — vespertilio  fuscus. 

Pipistrellus  kuhlii  fuscalus.  Common  at  Naivasha  and  Nairobi.  Very  closely  kin 
to  our  Myotis,  or  little  brown  bat,  with  same  habits.  Fly  high  in  the  air  after 
dusk,  and  are  easily  shot.    We  never  found  its  day  roosts. 

Nyctinomus  hindei  (Free-tailed  Bat).  At  Naivasha.  Very  swift  flight,  almost  like 
a  swallow's,  fairly  high  in  the  air.  Live  in  colonies;  one  such  in  a  house  at 
Naivasha.  On  the  Athi  Plains  they  were  found  in  daytime  hanging  up  behind 
the  loose  bark  of  the  big  yellow-trunked  acacias. 

Lavia  jrons  (Great-eared  Bat).  Bluish  body  and  yellowish  wings;  very  long 
ears.  Almost  diurnal,  flies  well  by  day;  hangs  from  the  thorn-tree  branches, 
in  the  sunlight,  and  flies  as  soon  as  it  sees  a  man  approaching.  One  young, 
which  remains  attached  to  the  mother  until  it  is  more  than  half  her  size. 

Petalia  thebaica  (Large-eared  Nycterine  Bat).  Caves  in  the  Rift  Valley;  also  in  the 
Sotik,  spending  the  day  in  the  tops  of  the  limestone  wells  or  caverns  which 
contained  water.  Both  sexes  occurred  together  in  company  with  a  bat  of  another 
genus — Rhinolophus.  Fly  very  close  to  the  ground,  only  two  or  three  feet  above 
it,  and  usually  among  trees  and  brush  and  not  in  the  open,  so  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  shoot  them. 

Rhinolophus.  Found  at  the  Limestone  Springs  in  the  Sotik,  and  in  great  numbers 
in  a  cave  at  Naivasha,  no  other  bat  being  found  in  the  cave.  Same  general 
habits  as  the  nycteris.    Specimens  flew  among  our  tents  in  the  evening. 

*  Crocidura  alchemiUcr,  new  species  (Heller).  Type  from  the  summit  of  the  Aber- 
dare Range;  altitude,  10,500  feet;  British  East  Africa;  adult  male,  number  163,087,  V.  S. 
Nat.  Mus.;    collected  by  Edmund  Heller,  October  17,  1909;    original  number,  1,177. 

Allied  to  fumosa  of  Mount  Kenia,  but  coloration  much  darker,  everywhere  clove 
brown,  the  underparts  but  slightly  lighter  in  shade;  feet  somewhat  lighter  sepia  brown 
but  much  darker  than  in  fumosa;  hair  at  base  slaty-black.  Hair  long  and  hea\T,  on 
back  6  to  7  mm.  long;  considerably  longer  than  m  fumosa.  Musk  glands  on  sides  of  body 
clothed  with  short  brownish  hairs,  the  glands  producing  an  oily  odor  very  similar  to  that  of 
a  petrel.     Skull  somewhat  smaller  ihun  fumosa  with  relatively  smaller  teeth. 

Measurements  :  Head  and  body,  90;  tail,  55;  hind  foot,  15.3.  Skull:  Condylo- 
incisive  length,  21;   mastoid  breadth,  9.7;    upper  tooth  row  (alveoli),  8.3. 

This  species  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  dense  beds  of  Alchemilla  which  clothe  the  al- 
pine moorland  of  the  Aberdare  Range. 


544  APPENDIX  B 

Papio  ibeanus.  The  baboon  is  common  all  over  the  plains,  in  troops.  It  digs  up 
lily  bulbs,  and  industriously  turns  over  stones  for  grubs  and  insects.  Very 
curious,  intelligent,  and  bestial. 

Cercopithecus  kolbi.  Found  in  company  with  the  Colobus  in  heavy  forest  along 
the  Kikuyu  escarpment.    The  subspecies  Hindei  is  found  on  Kenia. 

Cercopithecus  pygerythrus  johnsoni  (Green  Monkey).  In  the  yellow  thorns  of  the 
Sotik  and  Rift  Valley,  and  along  the  northern  Guaso  Nyero.  Leaves  and  acacia 
pods  in  their  stomachs.  Live  in  troops  of  from  ten  to  twenty  individually. 
Exceedingly  active  and  agile.  Often  sit  motionless  on  the  very  tops  of  the  trees, 
when  they  cannot  be  seen  from  below.     Run  well  on  the  ground. 

Colobus  caudatus  (Black  and  White  Monkey).  Heavy  mountain  forests,  Kijabe 
and  Kenia,  and  on  the  Aberdares.  Only  foliage  in  the  stomachs  of  those  shot. 
Goes  in  small  troops,  each  seemingly  containing  both  males  and  females;  not 
as  agile  as  the  other  monkeys,  and  less  wary.     The  natives  prize  their  skins. 

On  the  Guas  Ngishu  the  small  mammals  were  in  general  identical  with  those 
of  the  Aberdares  and  Mount  Kenia. 

In  Uganda  Heller  shot  an  old  male,  Cercopithecus  ascanius  schmidti,  a  red- 
backed,  red-tailed,  white-nosed  monkey;  it  was  alone  in  a  small  grove  of  trees 
surrounded  by  elephant  grass.  In  the  same  grove  he  shot  a  squirrel,  Paraxerus, 
very  different  from  the  Kenia  species.  In  Uganda  there  were  fewer  species  of 
small  mammals  than  in  East  Africa,  in  spite  of  the  abundance  of  vegetation  and 
water. 

In  the  Lado  we  found  rats,  mice,  and  shrews  abundant,  but  the  num- 
ber of  species  Hmited,  and  for  the  most  part  representing  wide-spread 
types.  Some  of  the  bats  were  different  from  any  yet  obtained;  the  same 
may  be  true  of  the  shrews.  The  small  carnivores,  and  hyenas  also,  were 
very  scarce. 

North  of  Nimule  Kermit  shot  another  Funisciurus,  while  it  was  climb- 
ing a  bamboo. 

At  Gondokoro  there  were  many  bats  in  the  houses,  chiefly  Nyctinomus, 
the  swift-flying,  high-flying,  free-tailed  bats,  with  a  few  leaf-nosed  bats, 
and  yellow  bats. 

I  wish  field  naturalists  would  observe  the  relation  of  zebras  and  wild 
dogs.  Our  observations  were  too  limited  to  be  decisive  ;  but  it  seemed  to 
us  that  zebras  did  not  share  the  fear  felt  by  the  other  game  for  the  dogs. 
I  saw  a  zebra,  in  a  herd,  run  toward  some  wild  dogs,  with  its  mouth 
open  and  ears  back;  and  they  got  out  of  the  way,  although  seemingly 
not  much  frightened.  Loring  saw  a  solitary  zebra  seemingly  unmoved 
by  the  close  neighborhood  of  some  wild  dogs. 

Once,  on  the  Nile,  while  Loring  and  I  were  watching  a  monitor  steal- 
ing crocodiles'  eggs,  we  noticed  a  hippo  in  mid-stream.  It  was  about 
ten  in  the  morning.  The  hippo  appeared  regularly,  at  two  or  three 
minute  intervals,  always  in  the  same  place,  breathed,  and  immediately 
sank.  This  continued  for  an  hour.  We  could  not  make  out  what  he 
was  doing.  It  seemed  unlikely  that  he  could  be  feeding ;  and  the  cur- 
rent was  too  swift  to  allow  him  to  rest ;  all  other  hippos  at  that  time 
were  for  the  most  part  lying  in  the  shallows  or  were  back  among  the 
papyrus  beds. 


APPENDIX  C 

The  following  notes  were  made  by  Loring  in  East  Africa: 

Alpine  Hyrax  (Procavia  mackinderi).  On  Mount  Kenia  at  altitudes  between 
12,000  and  15,000  feet  we  found  these  animals  common  wherever  protective 
rocks  occurred.  Under  the  shelving  rocks  were  great  heaps  of  their  droppings, 
and  in  the  places  where  for  centuries  they  had  sunned  themselves  the  stone 
was  stained  and  worn  smooth.  At  all  times  of  the  day,  but  more  frequently 
after  the  sun  had  risen,  they  could  be  seen  singly,  in  pairs,  and  in  families, 
perched  on  the  peaks.  At  our  highest  camp  (14,700  feet),  where  on  the  2 2d 
of  September  more  than  half  an  inch  of  ice  formed  in  buckets  of  water  outside 
the  tent,  they  were  often  heard.  They  emit  a  variety  of  chatters,  whistles,  and 
cat-like  squalls  that  cannot  be  described  in  print,  and  we  found  them  very  noisy. 
Whenever  they  saw  any  one  approaching  they  always  sounded  some  note  of 
alarm,  and  frequently  continued  to  harangue  the  intruder  until  he  had  ap- 
proached so  close  that  they  took  fright  and  disappeared  in  the  rocks  or  until 
he  had  passed.  All  along  the  base  of  cliffs  and  leading  from  one  mass  of  rocks 
to  another  they  made  well-worn  trails  through  the  grass.  At  this  time  of  the 
year  many  young  ones  about  one-third  grown  were  seen  and  taken. 

Kenia  Tree  Hyrax  (Procavia  crawshayi).  From  the  time  that  we  reached  the  edge 
of  the  forest  belt  (altitude  7,000),  on  Mount  Kenia,  we  heard  these  tree  dassies 
every  night  and  at  all  camps  to  an  altitude  of  10,700  feet  they  were  common. 
I  once  heard  one  on  a  bright  afternoon  about  four  o'clock,  and  on  a  second 
occasion  another  about  two  hours  before  sundown.  Although  I  searched 
diligently  on  the  ground  for  runways,  and  for  suitable  places  to  set  traps,  no 
such  place  wsls  found.  In  a  large  yew-tree  that  had  split  and  divided 
fifteen  feet  from  the  ground,  I  found  a  bed  or  bulky  platform  of  dried  leaves 
and  moss  of  nature's  manufacture.  On  the  top  of  this  some  animal  had  placed 
a  few  dried  green  leaves.  In  this  bed  I  set  a  steel  trap  and  carefully  covered 
it,  and  on  the  second  night  (October  14),  captured  a  dassie  containing  a  foetus 
almost  mature.  We  were  informed  by  our  "boys"  that  these  animals  inhabited 
hollow  stumps  and  logs  as  well  as  the  foliage  of  the  live  trees,  but  we  found 
no  signs  that  proved  it,  although,  judging  from  the  din  at  night,  dassies  were 
abundant  everywhere  in  the  forests. 

At  evening,  about  an  hour  after  darkness  had  fully  settled,  a  dassie  would 
call  and  in  a  few  seconds  dassies  were  answering  from  all  around,  and  the  din 
continued  for  half  an  hour  or  an  hour.  The  note  began  with  a  series  of  deep 
frog-like  croaks  that  gradually  gave  way  to  a  series  of  shrill  tremulous  screams, 
at  times  resembling  the  squealing  of  a  pig  and  again  the  cries  of  a  child.  It 
was  a  far-reaching  sound  and  always  came  from  the  large  forest  trees.  Often 
the  cries  were  directly  over  our  heads  and  at  a  time  when  the  porters  were  sing- 
ing and  dancing  about  a  bright  camp-fire.  Although  we  tried  many  times 
to  shine  their  eyes  with  a  powerful  light,  we  never  succeeded,  nor  were  we  able 
to  hear  any  rustling  of  the  branches  or  scraping  on  the  tree  trunks  as  one  might 
expect  an  animal  of  such  size  to  make.  The  porters  were  oflfered  a  rupee  apiece 
for  dassies,  but  none  was  brought  in. 

Rock  Hyrax  (Procavia  brucei  maculata).     These  animals  inhabited  the  rocks  and 

cliffs  on  Ulukenia  Hills  in  fair  numbers.    None  lived  in  burrows  of  their  own 

545 
35 


546  APPENDIX  C 

make,  but  took  advantage  of  the  natural  crevices  for  cover.  I  heard  their 
shrill  calls  at  night,  usually  when  the  moon  was  out.  Several  were  shot  and 
two  trapped  in  traps  set  in  narrow  passages  through  which  the  animals  travelled. 

Klipspringer  {Oreotragus  oreotragus).  Several  pairs  of  these  little  antelopes  were 
seen  on  Ulukenia  Hills,  but  never  were  more  than  two  found  at  a  time.  They 
lived  on  the  rocky  hill-sides  and  were  quite  tame,  allowing  one  to  approach 
within  twenty-five  yards  before  taking  fright  and  dashing  into  the  rocks,  inva- 
riably their  shelter  when  alarmed.  When  thoroughly  frightened  they  made 
a  loud  sneezing  sound.  Two  were  collected;  one  of  which  was  a  female  with 
horns.  A  young  Boer  who  had  lived  in  that  neighborhood  three  years  told  me 
tha<^  al'  the  females  of  proper  age  had  horns. 

Pygmy  Gerbille  {Dipodilliis  harwoodi).  These  little  sand  mice  resemble  very  closely 
some  of  our  American  pocket  mice  (Perognaihus).  Heller  took  several  on  the 
Njoro  O  Solali  and  found  them  common,  and  I  caught  one  specimen  on  the 
South  Guaso  Nyero  River.  On  the  sandy  desert  flats  on  the  south-west  side  of 
Lake  Naivasha  they  were  abundant.  The  holes  running  obliquely  into  the 
ground  were  sometimes  blocked  with  sand  from  the  inside.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  lake  there  was  less  sand,  and  here  the  gerbilles  were  found  only  in 
spots.  In  sand  alone  their  burrows  resembled  those  described,  but  where  the 
ground  was  hard  they  entered  almost  perpendicular,  and  were  never  blocked  with 
sand.     Often  seed  pods  and  tiny  cockle  burrs  were  strewn  about  the  entrances. 

Pygmy  Mouse  (Mus  [Leggada]  gratus) .  Various  forms  of  this  tiny  little  mouse  were 
taken  all  along  the  route  we  travelled.  They  were  caught  in  traps  set  at  ran- 
dom in  the  brushy  thickets  in  the  lowland,  as  well  as  in  the  open  grassy  spots 
on  the  rocky  hill-sides  where  they  frequented  the  runways  made  by  various 
species  of  Mus.     A  few  were  collected  on  Mount  Kenia. 

Athi  Rock  Mouse  (Epimys  nieventris  ulce).  This  mouse  proved  to  be  a  new  species. 
It  was  common  in  and  about  the  rocks  on  Ulukenia  Hills,  which  is  the  only 
place  where  we  found  them.  Those  taken  were  caught  in  traps  baited  with 
peanut  butter,  dried  apple,  and  rolled  oats  and  set  among  the  rocks. 

Forest  Mouse  {Epimys  peromyscus).  At  our  camp  at  8,500  feet  altitude  we  first  met 
with  this  mouse,  and  although  a  good  line  of  traps  well  baited  and  set  about 
stumps,  tree  trunks,  and  logs  for  three  nights,  but  one  mouse  was  captured, 
that  being  taken  under  a  large  log.  Several  others  were  trapped  in  the  thick 
brush  bordering  the  bamboo.  At  10,000  feet  several  were  caught  in  the  bam- 
boo, and  at  10,700  feet  a  good  series  was  collected  on  a  well-thicketed  and  tim- 
bered rocky  ridge. 

Masked  Tree  Rat  (Thamnomys  loringi).  None  were  taken  until  we  reached  the 
south-west  end  of  Lake  Naivasha.  Here  and  also  at  Naivasha  Station  a  number 
were  collected  in  traps  baited  with  rolled  oats  and  dried  apple  and  set  at  the 
base  of  large  trees  and  in  brushy  thickets  in  groves.  In  some  of  these  trees  and 
in  the  bushes,  nests  of  sticks,  grass  and  leaves  were  found.  While  setting 
traps  one  afternoon  I  saw  what  might  have  been  one  of  these  rats  dart  from 
a  deserted  bird's  nest,  and  run  down  a  limb  to  the  ground.  The  following 
morning  I  caught  a  masked  tree  rat  in  a  trap  set  beneath  the  nest. 

Four-striped  Grass  Rat  (Arvicanthus  pumilio  niinutus).  At  Naivasha  we  first  came 
across  this  species,  where  it  was  found  on  the  east  side  of  the  lake  only,  although 
the  spotted  rat  was  common  on  both  the  east  and  the  west  side.  At  Naivasha 
these  two  animals  inhabited  slightly  different  regions.  In  the  brushy  and 
grassy  thickets  bordering  the  lake  spotted  rats  were  abundant,  but  a  few  four- 
str-ped  rats  were  captured.  As  soon  as  the  traps  were  transferred  to  thorn- 
t  ee  groves  where  there  was  plenty  pf  under-bu§heg,  and  not  so  njuch  grass 


APPENDIX  C  547 

and  weeds,  the  spotted  rats  were  found  in  great  numbers,  but  no  four-striped 
rats.  All  the  way  from  Fort  Hall  to  Mount  Kenia  and  as  high  as  10,700  feci, 
where  Dr.  Mearns  secured  one  specimen,  thi.s  sjx-cics  was  common.  We  al.so 
caught  them  along  the  route  between  Kampalla  and  Butiaba. 

Giant  Rat  {Thrynomys  gregorianus).  Along  the  skirtings  of  the  rivers  in  the  thick 
weeds,  grass,  and  bushes  at  Fort  Hall  signs  of  these  animals  were  common. 
There  were  no  well-defined  paths.  Footprints  the  size  and  shape  of  tho.sc 
made  by  our  muskrats  {Fiber)  were  found  in  the  mud  at  the  water's  edge,  and 
here  and  there  were  clusters  of  grass  and  weed  stems  cut  in  lengths  averaging 
six  inches.  In  sections  where  the  vegetation  had  been  burned  were  innumer- 
able holes  where  some  animal  had  dug  about  the  base  of  grass  tufts.  Their 
signs  did  not  extend  further  than  fifty  feet  from  water.  While  passing  through 
a  thicket  close  to  the  water,  I  started  a  large  rodent  which  darted  through  the 
grass  and  plunged  into  the  water. 

Mole  Rat  {Tachyoryctes  splendens  ibeanus).  Mounds  of  earth  that  these  rats  harl 
thrown  from  the  mouth  of  their  burrows  at  the  time  that  the  tunnels  were  made, 
were  found  as  far  west  as  Oljoro  O'Nyon  River,  but  none  at  N'garri  Narok 
River.  At  our  camp  on  the  South  Guaso  Nyero  River  a  pale  mole-colored 
mole  rat  took  this  animal's  place.  Some  fifteen  miles  west  of  Lake  Naivasha 
mole  rats  became  common,  and  on  the  sandy  flats  within  five  miles  of  the  lake 
they  were  so  abundant  that  our  horses  broke  into  their  runways  nearly  every 
step.  Their  underground  tunnels  and  the  mounds  of  earth  that  were  thrown 
out  were  similar  to  those  made  by  the  pocket  gophers  of  western  United 
States.  Many  were  snared  by  the  porters  and  brought  to  camp  alive.  They 
would  crawl  about  slowly,  not  attempting  to  run  away,  but  looking  for  a  hole 
to  enter.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few  seconds  they  would  begin  to  dig.  In  any 
slight  depression  they  began  work,  and  when  small  roots  or  a  tussock  of  grass 
intervened,  they  used  their  teeth  until  the  obstruction  was  removed,  and  then 
with  the  nails  of  their  front  feet  only,  continued  digging.  As  the  hole  deepened 
they  threw  the  dirt  out  between  their  hind  legs  and  with  them  still  further  be- 
yond. After  the  earth  had  accumulated  so  that  it  drifted  back  they  faced  about 
and  using  their  chest  as  a  scoop,  pushed  it  entirely  out  of  the  way.  They  were 
most  active  in  the  evening,  at  night,  and  in  early  morning.  Several  were  found 
dead  near  their  holes,  having  evidently  been  killed  by  owls  or  small  carnivorous 
mammals. 

Alpine  Mole  Rat  {Tachyoryctes  rex).  Mole  rat  mounds  were  common  about  the  West 
Kenia  Forest  Station,  but  none  were  seen  between  7,500  and  8,500  feet,  and 
from  this  altitude  they  ranged  to  11,000  feet.  They  inhabited  all  of  the  open 
grassy  plots  in  the  bamboo  belt  and  in  the  open  timber.  The  "boys"  snared 
many  in  nooses  ingeniously  placed  in  the  runs  that  were  opened  and  closed 
after  the  trap  was  set.  While  digging  into  the  burrows,  several  times  I  found 
bulky  nests  of  dried  grass  in  side  pockets  just  off  the  main  runway.  Most  of 
them  were  empty,  but  one  was  filled  with  the  animal's  droppings. 

Kapiti  Blesmol  {Myoscalops  kapiii).  This  mole  rat,  which  proved  to  be  new  to 
science,  was  first  encountered  at  Potha  on  Kapiti  Plains  and  it  was  again  met 
with  at  Ulukenia  Hills.  I  was  shown  several  skins  that  were  taken  about  fif- 
teen miles  east  of  Nairobi.  They  were  the  most  difficult  of  all  mole  rats  to  catch 
because  they  lived  in  the  very  sandy  soil  and  almost  invariably  covered  the 
trap  with  sand  without  themselves  getting  into  it.  I  found  a  number  of  their 
skulls  in  the  pellets  of  barn  and  other  species  of  owls. 

Springhaas  {Pedetes  surdaster).  Very  common  at  Naivasha  station  where  their 
burrows  were  num'^rous  on  a  sandy  flat  practically  in  the  town,  and  many 


548  APPENDIX   C 

were  taken  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  station.  They  are  nocturnal,  although 
one  instance  came  under  my  observation  where  a  springhaas  was  seen  on  a 
dark  day  to  run  from  one  burrow  to  another.  By  hunting  them  on  dark  nights, 
with  the  aid  of  an  acetylene  light  we  were  able  to  secure  a  good  series  of  skins. 
When  the  light  was  flashed  on  them,  their  eyes  shone  like  balls  of  fire  the  size 
of  a  penny,  and  it  was  not  uncommon  to  see  from  two  to  five  and  six  within  the 
radius  of  the  light  at  one  time.  They  were  usually  flashed  at  a  distance  of 
about  a  hundred  yards,  and  as  the  light  drew  near  they  would  watch  it,  fre- 
quently bobbing  up  and  down.  Often  they  hopped  away  to  right  or  to  left, 
but  very  seldom  did  their  fright  carry  them  into  their  burrows  unless  a  shot 
was  fired;  in  fact  even  then  we  sometimes  followed  up  one  of  their  companions 
and  secured  it.  Some  allowed  us  to  approach  within  ten  feet  before  moving, 
and  then  off  they  would  go  in  great  bounds,  but  I  was  never  able  in  the  dim 
light  to  see  whether  or  not  their  tails  aided  them  in  jumping.  I  once  shot  a 
fox  from  a  cluster  of  eyes  that  I  am  positive  were  those  of  springhaas;  this 
together  with  the  fact  that  the  stomachs  of  all  of  the  foxes  killed  contained  ter- 
mites and  insects,  leads  me  to  believe  that  these  two  animals  are  more  or  less 
congenial.  Dr.  Mearns  saw  a  springhaas  sitting  with  its  tail  curled  around  to 
one  side  of  its  body,  similar  to  the  position  often  assumed  by  a  house  cat. 

Several  small  colonies  of  springhaas  were  discovered  on  sandy  flats  near 
Ulukenia  Hills.  Two  females  taken  from  the  same  burrow  showed  great  vari- 
ation in  size,  one  having  a  tail  several  inches  longer  and  ears  larger  than  the 
other.  Although  I  never  discovered  a  burrow  that  was  completely  blocked 
with  sand,  in  the  morning  one  could  find  quantities  of  fresh  sand  that  had 
been  thrown  out  of  the  entrance  during  the  night. 

Great-eared  Fox  (Otocyon  virgartus).  This  new  species  of  fox  we  discovered  at  Nai- 
vasha  and  found  it  very  common  there.  All  of  the  seven  specimens  secured  were 
taken  by  "jacking"  at  night,  although  while  travelling  over  the  Uganda  Railroad 
we  frequently  saw  them  singly  or  in  pairs  in  broad  daylight.  The  white  people 
knew  nothing  of  a  fox  in  this  country  and  had  always  called  them  "jackals." 
They  seemed  to  live  in  pairs  and  groups  of  three  to  six.  On  dark  nights  it 
was  usually  easy  to  shine  their  eyes  and  approach  within  shooting  range.  We 
would  shine  a  fox,  then  suddenly  the  glare  of  its  eyes  would  disappear  and  we 
would  walk  about  casting  the  light  in  all  directions  until  we  again  saw  the  two 
balls  of  fire  glaring  some  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards  away.  Often  the  foxes  would 
slink  about  for  some  time  before  we  got  within  gunshot  range.  Frequently  wc 
saw  two  and  sometimes  three  and  four  standing  so  close  together  that  it  was 
surprising  that  the  spread  of  the  shot  did  not  kill  more  than  one.  One  evening 
Dr.  Mearns  and  I  started  out  about  nine  o'clock  and  returned  about  midnight. 
Most  of  the  hunting  was  done  on  an  elevated  brushy  plateau  within  short  dis- 
tance of  a  native  village  where  the  occupants  were  singing,  dancing,  and  play- 
ing their  crude  stringed  instruments.  We  ran  into  a  bunch  of  five  of  these 
foxes  and  got  four  of  them,  none  of  which  was  the  young  of  the  year.  After 
shooting  one,  we  would  search  about  in  the  dark  until  the  light  picked  up  an- 
other pair  of  eyes,  and  in  this  way  we  kept  circling  about  close  to  the  village. 
One  fox  was  killed  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  railroad  station,  and  at 
dusk  one  evening  I  saw  a  fox  emerge  from  a  burrow  close  to  a  group  of  natives 
and  scamper  across  the  flat.  The  stomachs  of  several  were  examined  and  found 
to  contain  about  a  quart  of  termites  and  other  insects. 

Giant  Shrew  (Crocidura  nyansce).  Giant  shrews  were  common  at  Lake  Naivasha, 
where  most  of  them  were  caught  in  the  thick  reeds  and  rank  grass  bordering 
the  lake.     One  was  taken  at  Nyeri  and  another  on  Mount  Kenia  at  an  altitude 


APPENDIX   C  549 

of  10,700  feet.  They  seemed  to  be  as  much  diurnal  as  nocturnal  and  were 
captured  in  traps  baited  with  rolled  oats,  dried  apple,  and  raw  meat.  They 
inhabited  the  dense  parts  of  the  thickets  where  the  foliage  had  to  be  parted 
and  a  clearing  made  for  the  traps.  These  localities  were  the  home  of  a  large 
rat,  and  many  of  the  rats  captured  were  decapitated  or  partly  eaten  by 
animals  that  probably  were  giant  shrews.  A  shrew  captured  alive  was  very 
ferocious  and  would  seize  upon  anything  that  came  within  its  reach.  When 
fully  excited  and  lifted  into  the  air  by  its  tail,  it  would  emit  a  loud  shrill  chirp- 
ing note. 

Short-tailed  Shrew  {Surdisorex  norce).  Collected  between  altitudes  of  10,000  and 
12,100  feet  on  Mount  Kenia.  With  the  exception  of  those  collected  at  10,000 
feet,  where  they  were  trapped  in  open  grassy  and  brushy  parks  in  the  bamboo, 
most  of  them  were  taken  in  runways  of  Olomys,  and  all  of  those  taken  at  12,100 
were  caught  in  such  runways  in  tall  marsh  grass. 

Elephant  Shrew  {Elephaniiilus  pulcher).  Both  diurnal  and  nocturnal.  While  riding 
over  the  country  I  frequently  saw  them  darting  through  the  runways  from 
one  thicket  to  another.  Nearly  every  clump  of  bushes  and  patch  of  rank 
vegetation  in  the  Sotik  and  Naivasha  districts  was  traversed  with  well-worn 
trails  used  by  different  species  of  Mtis  and  shrews.  The  elephant  shrews  were 
most  common  on  the  dry  flats  where  clumps  of  fibre  plants  grew,  and  their  trails 
usually  led  into  some  thorny  thicket  and  finally  entered  the  ground. 

Yellow-winged  Tree  Bat  {Lavia  jrons).  These  large  semi-diurnal  bats  lived 
in  the  thorn-tree  groves  and  thick  bush  along  the  Athi,  South  Guaso  Nyero, 
and  Nile  Rivers  where  we  found  them  more  or  less  common,  and  at  the  latter 
place  abundant.  At  the  first  two  named  places  they  were  almost  always  found 
in  pairs  hanging  from  the  thorn-trees  by  their  feet,  their  wings  folded  before 
their  faces.  When  disturbed  they  fly  a  short  distance  and  alight,  but  when  we 
returned  to  the  spot  a  few  minutes  later  they  would  often  be  found  in  the  same 
tree  from  which  they  had  been  started.  On  the  Nile  at  Rhino  Camp,  and  in 
suitable  places  all  along  the  trail  between  Kampalla  and  Butiaba,  it  was  not 
unusual  to  find  three  and  four  in  a  single  thorn-tree.  On  dark  days,  and  once 
in  the  bright  sunlight,  I  saw  these  bats  flying  about  and  feeding.  At  evening 
they  always  appeared  an  hour  or  so  before  the  sun  went  down.  Their  method 
of  feeding  was  quite  similar  to  that  of  our  fly-catching  birds.  They  would 
dart  from  the  branches  of  a  thorn-tree,  catch  an  insect,  then  return  and  hang 
head  downward  in  the  tree  while  they  ate  the  morsel.  One  was  captured 
with  a  young  one  clinging  to  it  head  downward,  its  feet  clasped  about  its 
mother's  neck. 


APPENDIX  D 

Dr.  Mearns,  accompanied  by  Loring,  spent  from  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember to  after  the  middle  of  October,  1909,  in  a  biological  survey  of 
Mount  Kenia.  I  take  the  following  account  from  his  notes.  In  them 
he  treats  the  mountain  proper  as  beginning  at  an  altitude  of  7,500  feet. 

Mount  Kenia  is  the  only  snow-capped  mountain  lying  exactly  on 
the  equator.  Its  altitude  is  about  17,200  feet.  The  mountain  is  supposed 
to  support  15  glaciers;  those  that  Mearns  and  Loring  examined  resembled 
vast  snow  banks  rather  than  clear  ice-glaciers.  The  permanent  snow  line 
begins  at  the  edge  of  the  glacial  lakes  at  15,000  feet;  on  October  i8th  there 
was  a  heavy  snow-storm  as  low  down  as  11,000  feet.  For  some  distance 
below  the  snow  line  the  slopes  were  of  broken  rock,  bare  earth,  and 
gravel,  with  a  scanty  and  insignificant  vegetable  growth  in  the  crannies 
between  the  rocks.  These  grasses  and  alpine  plants,  including  giant 
groundsells  and  lobelias,  cover  the  soil.  At  13,000  feet  timber  line  is 
reached. 

The  Kenia  forest  belt,  separating  this  treeless  alpine  region  from 
the  surrounding  open  plains,  is  from  6  to  9  miles  wide.  The  forest  zone 
is  only  imperfectly  divided  into  successive  belts  of  trees  of  the  same  species; 
for  the  species  vary  on  different  sides  of  the  mountain.  Even  the  bamboo 
zone  is  interrupted.    On  the  west  side  the  zones  may  be  divided  into: 

(i)  A  cedar  zone  from  7,000  or  7,500  to  8,500  feet.     The  cedars  are 
mixed  with  many  hardwood  trees. 

(2)  A  belt  composed   mainly  of  bamboo  and  yellow-wood  (African 

yew)  from  8,500  to  10,700  feet.    Here  the  true  timber  zone  ends. 

(3)  A  zone  of  giant  heath,  mixed  with  giant  groundsells  and  shrubs, 

extending  to  13,000  feet.  The  heaths  may  be  30  feet  high 
and  can  be  used  as  fuel.  In  this  zone  are  many  boggy 
meadows. 

Loring  and  Mearns  occupied  five  collecting  camps  in  the  forest  zone 
and  one  above  it,  at  13,700  feet.  One  day  Mearns  followed  the  snow 
line  for  a  mile  without  seeing  any  traces  of  large  animals,  although  leop- 
ards and  smaller  cats  sometimes  wander  to  this  height.  The  grove- 
toothed  rat,  otomys,  was  numerous  in  the  grass  bordering  the  glacial 
lakes  at  a  height  of  15,000  feet;  so  were  the  big  mountain  hyrax;  and 
Mearns  shot  one  of  these  animals  at  15,500  feet,  by  a  snow  bank;  it  was 
the  highest  point  at  which  any  mammal  was  collected.  Various  kinds  of 
rats  and  shrews  were  numerous  about  the  13,700  foot  camp.  Above  12,000 
feet  only  three  small  birds  were  seen:  a  long-tailed  sunbird,  a  stone 
chat,  and  a  fantail  warbler. 

550 


APPENDIX  D  551 

On  the  entire  Mount  Kenia  trip  1,112  birds,  of  210  species,  were  col- 
lected; 1,320  mammals  and  771  reptiles  and  batrachians  were  collected, 
but  the  species  represented  were  much  fewer.  Mearns  also  made  an  ex- 
cellent collection  of  plants  and  a  good  collection  of  invertebrates.  Fresh- 
water crabs  were  numerous  in  the  streams  up  to  10,000  feet,  frogs  went 
as  high  as  10,700,  a  chameleon  was  taken  at  11,000,  and  a  lizard  at  12,100. 

Loring  ascended  the  mountain  to  the  base  of  the  pinnacle,  at  about 
16,500  feet.  He  started  from  the  highest  camp,  where  the  water  froze  each 
night.  The  ascent  was  easy  and  he  carried  his  camera;  but  the  glare  of 
the  snow  gave  him  snow  blindness. 


APPENDIX  E 

PROTECTIVE   COLORATION 

Mr.  Dugmore  has  made  a  wonderful  series  of  photographs  of  African 
big  game.  Mr.  Kearton  has  made  a  series  of  moving  pictures  of  various 
big  animals  which  were  taken  ahve  by  Buffalo  Jones  and  his  two  cow- 
boys, Loveless  and  Meany,  on  his  recent  trip  to  East  Africa;  a  trip  on 
which  they  were  accompanied  by  a  former  member  of  my  regiment,  Guy 
Scull.  All  three  men  are  old-time  Westerners  and  plainsmen,  skilled  in 
handling  both  horse  and  rope.  They  took  their  big,  powerful,  thoroughly 
trained  cow  horses  with  them,  and  roped  and  captured  a  lioness,  a  rhi- 
noceros, a  giraffe,  and  other  animals.  I  regard  these  feats  of  my  three 
fellow-countrymen  as  surpassing  any  feats  which  can  possibly  be  per- 
formed by  men  who  hunt  with  the  rifle. 

For  the  natural  history  of  African  big  game,  probably  the  three  most 
valuable  books — certainly  the  most  valuable  modern  books- — are  Selous's 
"African  Nature  Notes,"  Schilling's  "Flashlight  and  Rifle,"  and  Millais's 
"  Breath  from  the  Veldt."  The  photographer  plays  an  exceedingly  valuable 
part  in  nature  study,  but  our  appreciation  of  the  great  value  of  this  part 
must  never  lead  us  into  forgetting  that  as  a  rule  even  the  best  photograph 
renders  its  highest  service  when  treated  as  material  for  the  best  picture, 
instead  of  as  a  substitute  for  the  best  picture;  and  that  the  picture  it- 
self, important  though  it  is,  comes  entirely  secondary  to  the  text  in  any 
book  worthy  of  serious  consideration  either  from  the  stand-point  of  science 
or  the  stand-point  of  literature.  Of  course  this  does  not  mean  any  failure 
to  appreciate  the  absolute  importance  of  photographs — of  Mr.  Dugmore's 
capital  photographs,  for  instance;  what  I  desire  is  merely  that  we  keep 
in  mind,  when  books  are  treated  seriously,  the  relative  values  of  the  pho- 
tograph, the  picture,  and  the  text.  The  text  again,  to  be  of  the  highest 
worth,  must  be  good  both  in  form  and  in  substance;  that  is,  the  writer 
who  tells  us  of  the  habits  of  big  game  must  be  a  man  of  ample  personal 
experience,  of  trained  mind,  of  keen  powers  of  observation,  and,  in  addi- 
tion, a  man  possessing  the  ability  to  portray  vividly,  clearly,  and  with 
interest  what  he  has  seen. 

Experience  in  the  field  is  of  great  value  in  helping  to  test  various  bio- 
logical theories.  One  of  the  theories  which  has  had  a  very  great  vogue 
of  recent  years  is  that  of  the  protective  coloration  of  animals.  It  has 
been  worked  out  with  a  special  elaborateness  in  Mr.  Thayer's  book  on 
"Concealing  Coloration  in  the  Animal  Kingdom."  I  do  not  question 
the  fact  that  there  are  in  all  probability  multitudes  of  cases  in  which 
the  coloration  of  an  animal  is  of  protective  value  in  concealing  it  from 
its   prey  or  its  foes.     But  the  theory  is  certainly  pushed  to  preposterous 

552 


APPENDIX  E  553 

extremes;  its  ultra-adherents  taking  up  a  position  like  that  of  some  of 
the  earlier  champions  of  the  glacial  theory;  who,  having  really  discov- 
ered notable  proofs  of  glacial  action  in  parts  of  Europe  and  North  America, 
then  v^ent  slightly  crazy  on  their  favorite  subject,  and  proceeded  to  find 
proofs  of  glacial  action  over  the  entire  world  surface,  including,  for  in- 
stance, the  Amazon  Valley.  As  regards  many  of  the  big  game  animals, 
at  any  rate,  which  are  claimed  by  the  ultra-exponents  of  the  protective 
coloration  theory  as  offering  examples  thereof,  there  is  not  the  least  parti- 
cle of  justification  for  the  claim. 

I  select  Mr.  Thayer's  book  because  it  is  a  really  noteworthy  book, 
written  and  illustrated  by  men  of  great  ability,  and  because  it  contains 
much  that  is  of  genuine  scientific  value.*  I  have  no  question  whatever, 
for  instance,  that  concealing  coloration  is  of  real  value  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  to  certain  mammals  and  certain  birds,  not  to  mention  in- 
vertebrates. The  night  hawk,  certain  partridges  and  grouse,  and  numer- 
ous other  birds  which  seek  to  escape  observation  by  squatting  motionless, 
do  unquestionably  owe  an  immense  amount  to  the  way  in  which  their 
colors  harmonize  with  the  surrounding  colors,  thus  enabling  them  to  lie 
undetected  while  they  keep  still,  and  probably  even  protecting  them  some- 
what if  they  try  to  skulk  off.  In  these  cases,  where  the  theory  really 
applies,  the  creature  benefited  by  the  coloration  secures  the  benefit  by 
acting  in  a  way  which  enables  the  coloration  to  further  its  concealment. 
A  night  hawk,  or  a  woodcock,  or  a  prairie  chicken,  will  lie  until  nearly 
trodden  on,  the  bird  showing  by  its  action  that  its  one  thought  is  to  es- 
cape observation,  and  its  coloration  and  squatting  attitude  enabling  it 
thus  to  escape  observation;  as  Mr.  Beddard  puts  it  in  his  book  on  "Ani- 
mal Coloration,"  "absence  of  movement  is  absolutely  essential  for  pro- 
tectively colored  animals,  whether  they  make  use  of  their  coloration  for 
defensive  purposes  or  offensive  purposes."  So  far  as  Mr.  Thayer's  book 
or  similar  books  confine  themselves  to  pointing  out  cases  of  this  kind,  and 
to  working  on  h}^potheses  where  the  facts  are  supplied  by  such  cases,  they 
do  a  real  service.  But  it  is  wholly  different  when  the  theory  is  pushed 
to  fantastic  extremes,  as  by  those  who  seek  to  make  the  coloration  of 
big  garne  animals  such  as  zebras,  giraffes,  hartebeests,  and  the  like,  pro- 
tective. I  very  gravely  doubt  whether  some  of  the  smaller  mammals 
and  birds  to  which  Mr.  Thayer  refers  really  bear  out  his  theory  at  all. 
He  has,  for  instance,  a  picture  of  blue  jays  by  snow  and  blue  shadow, 
which  is  designed  to  show  how  closely  the  blue  jay  agrees  with  its  sur- 
roundings (I  would  be  uncertain  from  the  picture  whether  it  is  really  blue 
water  or  a  blue  shadow).  Now  it  is  a  simple  physical  impossibility  that 
the  brilliant  and  striking  coloration  of  the  blue  jay  can  be  protective 
both  in  the  bare  woods  when  snow  is  on  the  ground  and  in  the  thick 
leafy  woods  of  midsummer.     Countless  such  instances  could  be  given. 

*  In  passing  I  wish  to  bear  testimony  to  the  admirable  work  done  by  various  mem- 
bers of  the  Thayer  family  in  preserving  birds  and  wild  life — work  so  admirable  that  if 
those  concerned  in  it  will  go  on  with  it  they  are  entitled  to  believe  anything  in  the  world 
they  wish  about  protective  coloration! 


5H  Al'PENDIX  E 

Mr.  Thayer  insists,  as  vital  to  his  theory,  that  partridges  and  other  pro- 
tectively colored  animals  ow^e  their  safety,  not  at  all  to  being  incon- 
spicuously colored,  that  is,  to  being  colored  like  their  surroundings,  but 
to  their  counter-shading,  to  their  being  colored  dark  above  and  light 
below^.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  most  small  mammals  and  birds  which 
normally  owe  their  safety  to  the  fact  that  their  coloration  matches  their 
surroundings,  crouch  flat  whenever  they  seek  to  escape  observation; 
and  when  thus  crouched  flat,  the  counter-shading  on  which  Mr.  Thayer 
lays  such  stress  almost,  or  completely,  disappears.  The  counter-shading 
ceases  to  be  of  any  use  in  concealing  or  protecting  the  animal  at  the  precise 
moment  when  it  trusts  to  its  coloration  for  concealment.  Small  rodents 
and  small  dull-colored  ground  birds  are  normally  in  fear  of  foes  which 
must  see  them  from  above  at  the  critical  moment  if  they  see  them  at  all; 
and  from  above  no  such  shading  is  visible.  This  is  true  of  almost  all  the 
small  birds  in  question,  and  of  the  little  mice  and  rats  and  shrews,  and 
it  completely  upsets  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  as  regards  an  immense  pro- 
portion of  the  animals  to  which  he  applies  it;  most  species  of  mice,  for 
example,  which  he  insists  owe  their  safety  to  counter-shading,  live  under 
conditions  which  make  this  counter-shading  of  practically  no  consequence 
whatever  in  saving  them  from  their  foes.  The  nearly  uniform  colored 
mice  and  shrews  are  exactly  as  difficult  to  see  as  the  others. 

Again,  take  what  Mr.  Thayer  says  of  hares  and  prongbucks.  Mr. 
Thayer  insists  that  the  white  tails  and  rumps  of  deer,  antelope,  hares, 
etc.,  help  them  by  "obliteration"  of  them  as  they  flee.  He  actually 
continues  that  "when  these  beasts  flee  at  night  before  terrestrial  enemies, 
their  brightly  displayed  sky-lit  white  sterns  blot  out  their  foreshortened 
bodies  against  the  sky."  He  illustrates  what  he  means  by  pictures,  and 
states  that  "in  the  night  the  illusion  must  often  be  complete,  and  most 
beneficent  to  the  hunted  beast,"  and  that  what  he  calls  "these  rear-end 
sky-pictures  are  worn  by  most  fleet  ruminants  of  the  open  land,  and  by 
many  rodents  with  more  or  less  corresponding  habits,  notably  hares"  and 
smaller  things  whose  enemies  are  beasts  of  low  stature,  like  weasels,  minks, 
snakes,  and  foxes;  "in  short,  that  they  are  worn  by  animals  that  are 
habitually  or  most  commonly  looked  up  at  by  their  enemies."  Mr. 
Thayer  gives  several  pictures  of  the  prongbuck,  and  of  the  northern 
rabbit,  to  illustrate  his  theory,  and  actually  treats  the  extraordinarily 
conspicuous  white  rump  patch  of  the  prongbuck  as  an  "obliterative" 
marking.  In  reality,  so  far  from  hiding  the  animal,  the  white  rump  is  at 
night  often  the  only  cause  of  the  animal's  being  seen  at  all.  Under 
one  picture  of  the  prongbuck,  Mr.  Thayer  says  that  it  is  commonly 
seen  with  the  white  rump  against  the  sky-line  by  all  its  terrestrial 
enemies,  such  as  wolves  and  cougars.  Of  course,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
when  seen  against  the  sky-line,  the  rest  of  the  prongbuck's  silhouette  is 
so  distinct  that  the  white  rump  mark  has  not  the  slightest  obliterative 
value  of  any  kind.  I  can  testify  personally  as  to  this,  for  I  have  seen 
prongbuck  against  the  sky-line  hundreds  of  times  by  daylight,  and  at 
least  a  score  of  times  by  night.     The  only  occasion  it  could  ever  have 


AJPPl^^NDiX  K  5o5 

such  obliterative  value  would  be  at  the  precise  moment  when  it  happened 
to  be  standing  stern-on  in  such  a  position  that  the  rump  was  above  the 
sky-line  and  all  the  rest  of  the  body  below  it.  Ten  steps  further  back, 
or  ten  steps  further  forward,  would  in  each  case  make  it  visible  instantly 
to  the  dullest-sighted  wolf  or  cougar  that  ever  killed  game,  so  that  Mr. 
Thayer's  theory  is  of  value  only  on  the  supposition  that  both  the  prong- 
buck  and  its  enemy  happen  to  be  so  placed  that  the  enemy  never  glances 
in  its  direction  save  at  just  the  one  particular  moment  when,  by  a  combi- 
nation of  circumstances  which  might  not  occur  once  in  a  million  times, 
the  prongbuck  happens  to  be  helped  by  the  obliterative  quality  of  the 
white  rump  mark.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  the  chance  of  the  benefit 
happening  to  any  individual  prongbuck  is  so  inconceivably  small  that  it 
can  be  neglected,  and,  in  the  next  place,  in  reality  the  white  rump  mark 
is  exceedingly  conspicuous  under  all  ordinary  circumstances,  and  for 
once  that  it  might  help  the  animal  to  elude  attention,  must  attract  at- 
tention to  it  at  least  a  thousand  times.  At  night,  in  the  darkness,  as 
any  one  who  has  ever  spent  much  time  hunting  them  knows,  the  white 
rump  mark  of  the  antelope  is  almost  always  the  first  thing  about  them 
that  is  seen,  and  is  very  often  the  only  thing  that  is  ever  seen;  and  at 
night  it  does  not  fade  into  the  sky,  even  if  the  animal  is  on  the  sky-line. 
So  far  as  beasts  of  prey  are  guided  by  their  sight  at  night,  the  white  rump 
must  always  under  all  circumstances  be  a  source  of  danger  to  the  prong- 
buck, and  never  of  any  use  as  an  obliterative  pattern.  In  the  daj'time, 
so  far  from  using  this  white  rump  as  obliterative,  the  prongbuck  almost 
invariably  erects  the  white  hairs  with  a  kind  of  chrysanthemum  effect 
when  excited  or  surprised,  and  thereby  doubles  its  conspicuousness.  In 
the  daytime,  if  the  animals  are  seen  against  the  sky-line,  the  white  rump 
has  hardly  the  slightest  effect  in  making  them  less  conspicuous;  while  if 
they  are  not  seen  against  the  sky-line  (and  of  course  in  a  great  majority 
of  cases  they  are  not  so  seen),  it  is  much  the  most  conspicuous  feature 
about  them,  and  attracts  attention  from  a  very  long  distance.  But  this 
is  not  all.  Any  one  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  the  prongbuck  knows 
that  the  adult  prongbuck  practically  never  seeks  to  protect  itself  trom 
its  foes  by  concealment  or  by  eluding  their  observation;  its  one  desire  is 
itself  to  observe  its  foes,  and  it  is  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  or  not  it 
is  seen.  It  lives  in  open  ground,  where  it  is  always  very  conspicuous;  ex- 
cepting during  the  noonday  rest,  when  it  prefers  to  lie  down  in  a  hollow, 
almost  always  under  conditions  which  render  the  white  rump  patch  much 
less  conspicuous  than  at  any  other  time.  In  other  words,  during  the  time 
when  it  is  comparatively  off  its  guard  and  resting,  it  takes  a  position 
where  it  does  not  stand  against  the  sky-line — as  according  to  Mr.Thayer's 
ingenious  theory  it  should;  and,  again  contrary  to  this  same  theory,  it 
usually  lies  down  so  that  any  foe  would  have  to  look  down  at  it  from 
above.  Whenever  it  does  lie  down,  the  white  patch  becomes  less  conspicu- 
ous; it  is  rarely  quiet  for  any  length  of  time  except  when  lying  down.  The 
kids  of  the  prongbuck,  on  the  other  hand,  do  seek  to  escape  observation, 
_and  they  seek  to  do  so  by  lying  perfectly  flat  on  the  ground,  with  their 


556  APPENDIX   E 

heads  out-stretched  and  the  body  pressed  so  against  the  ground  that  the 
effect  of  the  white  rump  is  minimized,  as  is  also  the  effect  of  the  "counter- 
shading";  for  the  light-colored  under  parts  are  pressed  against  the  earth, 
and  the  little  kid  lies  motionless,  trusting  to  escape  observation  owing 
to  absence  of  movement,  helped  by  the  unbroken  color  surface  which  is 
exposed  to  view.  If  the  adult  prongbucks  really  ever  gained  any  bene- 
fit by  any  "protective"  quality  in  their  coloration,  they  would  certainly 
act  like  the  kids,  and  crouch  motionless.  In  reality  the  adult  prong- 
buck  never  seeks  to  escape  observation,  never  trusts  in  any  way  to  the 
concealing  or  protective  power  of  any  part  of  its  coloration,  and  is  not  bene- 
fited in  the  slightest  degree  by  this  supposed,  but  in  reality  entirely  non- 
existent, concealing,  or  protective  power.  The  white  rump  practically  never 
has  any  obliterative  or  concealing  function;  on  the  contrary,  in  the  great 
majority  of  instances,  it  acts  as  an  advertisement  to  all  outside  creatures  of 
the  prongbuck's  existence.  Probably  it  is  an  example  of  what  is  known 
as  directive  coloration,  of  coloration  used  for  purposes  of  advertisement 
or  communicatio'n  with  the  animal's  followers.  But  however  this  may  be, 
it  is  certain  that  there  is  not  the  smallest  justification  for  Mr.  Thayer's 
theory  so  far  as  the  prongbuck  is  concerned. 

It  is  practically  the  same  as  regards  the  rabbit  or  the  hare.  Any  one 
who  has  ever  been  in  the  woods  must  know,  or  certainly  ought  to  know,  that 
when  hares  are  sitting  still  and  trying  to  escape  observation,  they  crouch 
flat,  so  that  the  white  of  the  tail  and  rump  is  almost  concealed,  as  well 
as  the  white  of  the  under  parts,  while  the  effect  of  the  counter-shading 
almost  or  entirely  vanishes.  No  terrestrial  foe  of  the  hare  would  ever 
see  the  white  rump  against  the  sky-line  unless  the  animal  was  in  rapid 
motion  (and  parenthetically  I  may  observe  that  even  then  it  would  only  see 
the  rump  against  the  sky-line  in  an  infinitesimally  small  number  of  cases). 
Of  course  as  soon  as  the  animal  is  in  motion  it  is  conspicuous  to  even  the 
most  dull-sighted  beast  of  prey;  and  Mr.  Thayer's  idea  that  the  white 
rear  patch  may  mislead  a  foe  as  it  jumps  upon  it  is  mere  supposition,  un- 
sustained  by  any  proof,  and  contrary  to  all  the  facts  that  I  have  observed. 
Civilized  man,  who  is  much  more  dull-sighted  than  most  wild  things,  can 
always  see  a  rabbit  when  it  runs  because  its  white  is  then  so  very  con- 
spicuous. Here  again  I  do  not  think  there  is  the  slightest  value  in 
Mr.  Thayer's  theory.  The  white  rump  is  certainly  not  a  protective 
or  obliterative  marking ;  it  is  probably  a  directive  or  advertisement 
marking. 

The  Virginia  deer,  utterly  unlike  the  prongbuck,  does  often  seek  to 
evade  observation  by  lying  close,  or  skulking.  When  it  lies  close  it  lies 
flat  on  the  ground  like  a  hare,  and  its  white  tail  is  almost  invisible,  while 
of  course  even  the  most  low-creeping  foe  would  not  under  such  circum- 
stances get  it  against  the  sky-line.  When  it  skulks  it  moves  off  with 
head  and  neck  out-stretched  and  tail  flattened  down  with  the  white  as 
much  obscured  as  possible.  The  white  is  never  shown  in  conspicuous 
fashion  until  the  animal  is  frightened  and  no  longer  seeks  concealment. 
It  then  bounds  off  openly,  crashing  through  the  brush,  with  its  white 


APPENDIX  E  557 

tail  flaunted,  and  under  such  circumstances  the  white  mark  is  extremely 
conspicuous. 

Indeed  I  feel  that  there  is  p;rave  ground  to  question  the  general  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Thayer  that  "almost  all  mammals  are  equipped  with  a  full 
obliterative  shading  of  surface  colors;  that  is,  they  are  darkest  on  the 
back  and  lightest  on  the  belly,  usually  with  connected  intermediate 
shades."  This  is  undoubtedly  true  as  a  statement  of  the  coloration,  but 
whether  this  coloration  is  in  fact  obliterative  needs  further  investigation. 
Of  course  if  it  is  obliterative,  then  its  use  is  to  conceal  the  mammals.  Mr. 
Thayer's  whole  thesis  is  that  such  is  the  case.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  great  majority  of  these  mammals,  when  they  seek  to  escape  observa- 
tion, crouch  on  the  ground,  and  in  that  posture  the  light  belly  escapes 
observation,  and  the  animal's  color  pattern  loses  very  much  of,  and  some 
times  all  of,  the  "full  obliterative  shading  of  surface  colors"  of  which 
Mr.  Thayer  speaks.  Moreover,  when  crouched  down  in  seeking  to  es- 
cape observation,  the  foes  of  the  animal  are  most  apt  to  see  it  from  above, 
not  from  below  or  from  one  side.  This  is  also  the  case  with  carnivorous 
animals  which  seek  to  escape  the  observation  of  their  prey.  The  cougar 
crouches  when  lying  in  wait  or  stalking,  so  that  it  is  precisely  when  it  is 
seeking  to  escape  observation  that  its  lighter-colored  under  parts  are  ob- 
scured, and  the  supposed  benefit  of  the  "  obliterative  shading  pattern  "  lost. 
1  do  not  intend  without  qualification  to  take  ground  one  way  or  the  other  on 
this  general  question;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  any  such  sweeping  state- 
ment as  that  quoted  above  from  Mr.  Thayer  is  as  yet  entirely  unproved. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  in  most  cases  animals  whose  colors  harmonize  wath 
their  environment,  and  which  also  seek  to  escape  observation  by  remain- 
ing motionless  when  they  think  there  is  danger,  are  very  materially  helped 
by  their  concealing  coloration;  but  when  this  concealment  is  said  to  be 
due  to  the  obliterative  shading  as  described  by  Mr.  Thayer,  it  is  certainly 
worth  while  considering  the  fact  that  the  so-called  obliterative  pattern 
is  least  shown,  or  is  not  shown  at  all,  at  the  only  time  when  the  animal 
seeks  to  escape  observation,  or  succeeds  in  escaping  observation — that  is, 
when  it  crouches  motionless,  or  skulks  slowly,  with  the  conscious  aim  of  not 
being  seen.  No  color  scheme  whatever  is  of  much  avail  to  animals  when 
they  move  unless  the  movement  is  very  slow  and  cautious;  rats,  mice, 
gophers,  rabbits,  shrews,  and  the  enormous  majority  of  mammals  which  are 
colored  in  this  fashion  are  not  helped  by  their  special  coloration  pattern  at 
all  when  they  are  in  motion.  Against  birds  of  prey  they  are  practically 
never  helped  by  the  counter-shading,  but  merely  by  the  general  coloration 
and  by  absence  of  movement.  Their  chief  destroyers  among  mammals — • 
such  as  weasels,  for  instance — hunt  them  almost  or  altogether  purely  by 
scent,  and  though  the  final  pounce  is  usually  guided  by  sight,  it  is  made 
from  a  distance  so  small  that,  as  far  as  we  can  tell  by  observation,  the 
"counter-shading"  is  useless  as  a  protection.  In  fact,  while  the  general 
shading  of  these  small  mammals'  coats  may  very  probably  protect  them 
from  certain  foes,  it  is  as  yet  an  open  question  as  to  just  how  far  they 
are  helped  (and  indeed  in  very  many  cases  whether  they  really  are  helped 


558  APPENDIX  E 

to  any  appreciable  extent)  by  what  Mr.  Thayer  lays  such  especial  stress 
upon  as  being  "full  obliterative  shading  (counter-shading)  of  surface 
coloring." 

Certainly  many  of  the  markings  of  mammals,  just  as  is  the  case  with 
birds,  must  be  wholly  independent  of  any  benefit  they  give  to  their  pos- 
sessors in  the  way  of  concealment.  Mr.  Thayer's  pictures  in  some  cases 
portray  such  entirely  exceptional  situations  or  surroundings  that  they 
are  misleading — as,  for  instance,  in  his  pictures  of  the  peacock  and  the 
male  wood-duck.  An  instant's  reflection  is  sufficient  to  show  that  if  the 
gaudily  colored  males  of  these  two  birds  are  really  protectively  colored, 
then  the  females  are  not,  and  vice  versa;  for  the  males  and  females  in- 
habit similar  places,  and  if  the  elaborate  arrangement  of  sky  or  water 
and  foliage  in  which  Mr.  Thayer  has  placed  his  peacock  and  wood-drake 
represented  (which  they  do  not)  their  habitual  environment,  a  peahen 
and  wood-duck  could  not  be  regarded  as  protectively  colored  at  all; 
whereas  of  course  in  reality,  as  every  one  knows,  they  are  far  more  difficult 
to  see  than  the  corresponding  males.  Again,  he  shows  a  chipmunk  among 
twigs  and  leaves,  to  make  it  evident  that  the  white  and  black  markings 
conceal  it;  but  a  weasel  which  lacks  these  markings  would  be  even 
more  difficult  to  see.  The  simple  truth  is  that  in  most  woodland,  moun- 
tain, and  prairie  surroundings,  any  small  mammal  that  remains  motionless 
is,  unless  very  vividly  colored,  exceedingly  apt  to  escape  notice.  I  do 
not  think  that  the  stripes  of  the  chipmunk  are  of  any  protective  value; 
that  is,  I  believe  (and  the  case  of  the  weasel  seems  to  me  to  prove)  that 
its  coloration  would  be  at  least  as  fully  "protective"  without  them.  The 
striped  gophers  and  gray  gophers  seem  equally  easy  to  see;  they  live  in 
similar  habitats  and  the  stripes  seem  to  have  no  protective  effect  one  way 
or  the  other. 

It  is  when  Mr.  Thayer  and  the  other  extreme  members  of  the  protec- 
tive coloration  school  deal  with  the  big  game  of  Africa  that  they  go  most 
completely  wide  of  the  mark.  For  instance,  Mr.  Thayer  speaks  of  the 
giraffe  as  a  sylvan  mammal  with  a  checkered  sun-fleck  and  leaf-colored 
pattern  of  coloration  accompanied  by  complete  obliterative  shading, 
and  the  whole  point  of  his  remarks  is  that  the  giraffe's  coloration  "al- 
ways maintains  its  potency  for  obliteration."  Now  of  course  this  means 
nothing  unless  Mr.  Thayer  intends  by  it  to  mean  that  the  giraffe's  color- 
ation allows  it  to  escape  the  observation  of  its  foes.  I  doubt  whether  this 
is  ever  under  any  circumstances  the  case;  that  is,  I  doubt  whether  the 
giraffe's  varied  coloration  ever  "enables"  it  to  escape  observation  save 
as  the  dark  monochrome  of  the  elephant,  rhinoceros,  or  buffalo  may 
"enable"  one  of  these  animals  to  escape  observation  under  practically 
identical  conditions.  There  is  of  course  no  conceivable  color  or  scheme 
of  color  which  may  not  under  some  conceivable  circumstances  enable 
the  bearer  to  escape  observation;  but  if  such  coloring,  for  once  that  it 
enables  the  bearer  to  escape  observation,  exposes  the  bearer  to  observa- 
tion a  thousand  times,  it  cannot  be  called  protective.  I  do  not  think  that 
the  giraffe's  coloration  exposes  it  to  observation  on  the  part  of  its  foes; 


Appendix  e  5.30 

I  think  that  it  simply  has  no  effect  whatsoever.  The  giraffe  never  trusts 
to  escaping  observation;  its  sole  thought  is  itself  to  observe  any  possible 
foe.  At  a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  yards  the  color  pattern  becomes 
indistinct  to  the  eye,  and  the  animal  appears  of  a  nearly  uniform  tint, 
so  that  any  benefit  given  by  the  color  pattern  must  be  comparatively 
close  at  hand.  On  the  very  rare  occasions  when  beasts  of  prey — that  is, 
lions — do  attack  giraffes,  it  is  usually  at  night,  when  the  coloration  is  of 
no  consequence;  but  even  by  daylight  I  should  really  doubt  whether  any 
giraffe  has  been  saved  from  an  attack  by  lions  owing  to  its  coloration 
allowing  it  to  escape  observation.  It  is  so  big,  and  so  queerly  shaped, 
that  any  trained  eyes  detect  it  at  once,  if  within  a  reasonable  distance; 
it  only  escapes  observation  when  so  far  off  that  its  coloration  does  not 
count  one  way  or  the  other.  There  is  no  animal  which  will  not  at  times 
seem  invisible  to  the  untrained  eyes  of  the  average  white  hunter,  and 
any  beast  of  any  shape  or  any  color  standing  or  lying  motionless,  under 
exceptional  circumstances,  may  now  and  then  escape  observation.  The 
elephant  is  a  much  more  truly  sylvan  beast  than  the  giraffe,  and  it  is  a 
one-colored  beast,  its  coloration  pattern  being  precisely  that  which  Mr. 
Thayer  points  out  as  being  most  visible.  But  I  have  spent  over  a  minute 
in  trying  to  see  an  elephant  not  fifty  yards  off,  in  thick  forest,  my  black 
companion  vainly  trying  to  show  it  to  me;  I  have  had  just  the  same 
experience  with  the  similarly  colored  rhinoceros  and  buffalo  when  stand- 
ing in  the  same  scanty  bush  that  is  affected  by  giraffes,  and  with  the 
rhinoceros  also  in  open  plains  where  there  are  ant-hills.  It  happens  that  I 
have  never  had  such  an  experience  with  a  giraffe.  Doubtless  such  ex- 
periences do  occur  with  giraffes,  but  no  more  frequently  than  with  ele- 
phant, rhinoceros,  and  buffalo;  and  in  my  own  experience  I  found  that  I 
usually  made  out  giraffes  at  considerably  larger  distances  than  I  made 
out  rhinos.  The  buffalo  does  sometimes  try  to  conceal  itself,  and,  Mr. 
Thayer  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  it  is  then  much  more  difficult  to 
make  out  than  a  giraffe,  because  it  is  much  smaller  and  less  oddly  shaped. 
The  buffalo,  by  the  way,  really  might  be  benefited  by  protective  color- 
ation, if  it  possessed  it,  as  it  habitually  lives  in  cover  and  is  often  preyed 
on  by  the  lion;  whereas  the  giraffe  is  not  protected  at  all  by  its  colora- 
tion, and  is  rarely  attacked  by  lions. 

Elephants  and  rhinoceroses  occasionally  stand  motionless,  waiting 
to  see  if  they  can  place  a  foe,  and  at  such  times  it  is  possible  they  are 
consciously  se^eking  to  evade  observation.  But  the  giraffe  never  under 
any  circumstances  tries  to  escape  observation,  and  I  doubt  if,  practically 
speaking,  it  ever  succeeds  so  far  as  wild  men  or  wild  beasts  that  use  their 
eyes  at  all  are  concerned.  It  stands  motionless  looking  at  the  hunter, 
but  it  never  tries  to  hide  from  him.  It  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
animals  in  Nature.  Native  hunters  of  the  true  hunting  tribes  pick  it  up 
invariably  at  an  astonishing  distance,  and,  near  by,  it  never  escapes  their 
eyes;  its  coloration  is  of  not  the  slightest  use  to  it  from  the  stand-point  of 
concealment.  Of  course,  white  men,  even  though  good  ordinary  hunters, 
-fHfi4  Nack  men  pf  the  non-hunting  tribes,  often  fail  to  see  it,  just  as  they 


560  APPENDIX  E 

often  fail  to  see  a  man  or  a  horse,  at  a  distance;  but  this  is  almost  always 
at  such  a  distance  that  the  coloration  pattern  cannot  be  made  out  at  all,  the 
animal  seeming  neutral  tinted,  like  the  rest  of  the  landscape,  and  escaping 
observation  because  it  is  motionless,  just  as  at  the  same  distance  a  rhinoc- 
eros may  escape  observation.  A  motionless  man,  if  dressed  in  neutral- 
tinted  clothes,  w^ill  in  the  same  manner  escape  observation,  even  from 
w^ild  beasts,  at  distances  so  short  that  no  giraffe  could  possibly  avoid 
being  seen.  I  have  often  w^atched  game  come  to  vs^atering-places,  or 
graze  toward  me  on  a  nearly  bare  plain;  on  such  occasions  I  might 
be  unable  to  use  cover,  and  then  merely  sat  motionless  on  the  grass  or  in 
a  game  trail.  My  neutral-tinted  clothes,  gray  or  yellow  brown,  were 
all  of  one  color,  without  any  counter-shading;  but  neither  the  antelope 
nor  the  zebra  saw  me,  and  they  would  frequently  pass  me,  or  come  down 
to  drink,  but  thirty  or  forty  yards  off,  without  ever  knowing  of  my  presence. 
My  "concealment"  or  "protection"  was  due  to  resting  motionless  and 
to  wearing  a  neutral-tinted  suit,  although  there  was  no  counter-shading, 
and  although  the  color  was  uniform  instead  of  being  broken  up  with 
a  pattern  of  various  tints. 

The  zebra  offers  another  marked  example  of  the  complete  break-down 
of  the  protective  coloration  theory.  Mr.  Thayer  says:  "Among  all  the 
bolder  obliterative  patterns  worn  by  mammals,  that  of  the  zebra  probably 
bears  away  the  palm  for  potency."  The  zebra's  coloration  has  proved 
especially  attractive  to  many  disciples  of  this  school,  even  to  some  who 
are  usually  good  observers;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  zebra's  coloration 
is  the  reverse  of  protective,  and  it  is  really  extraordinary  how  any  fairly 
good  observer  of  accurate  mind  can  consider  it  so.  One  argument  used 
by  Mr.  Thayer  is  really  funny,  when  taken  in  connection  with  an  argu- 
ment frequently  used  by  other  disciples  of  the  protective  coloration  theory 
as  applied  to  zebras.  Mr.  Thayer  shows  by  ingenious  pictures  that  a  wild 
ass  is  much  less  protectively  colored  than  a  zebra;  some  of  his  fellow- 
disciples  triumphantly  point  out  that  at  a  little  distance  the  zebra's  stripes 
merge  into  one  another  and  that  the  animal  then  becomes  protectively 
colored  because  it  looks  exactly  like  a  wild  ass!  Of  course  each  author 
forgets  that  zebras  and  wild  asses  live  under  substantially  the  same  con- 
ditions, and  that  this  mere  fact  totally  upsets  the  theory  that  each  is 
beneficially  affected  by  its  protective  coloration.  The  two  animals  can- 
not both  be  protectively  colored;  they  cannot  each  owe  to  its  coloration 
an  advantage  in  escaping  from  its  foes.  It  is  absolutely  impossible,  if  one 
of  them  is  so  colored  as  to  enable  it  to  escape  the  observations  of  its  foes, 
that  the  other  can  be.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  is,  and  neither  makes 
any  attempt  to  elude  observation  by  its  foes,  but  trusts  entirely  to  vigilance 
in  discerning  them  and  fleetness  in  escaping  from  them;  although  the 
wild  ass,  unlike  the  zebra,  really  is  so  colored  that  because  thereof  it 
may  occasionally  escape  observation  from  dull-sighted  foes. 

Mr.  Thayer's  argument  is  based  throughout  on  a  complete  failure 
to  understand  the  conditions  of  zebra  life.  He  makes  an  elaborate 
statement  to  show  that  the  brilliant  cross  bands  of  the  zebra  have  great 


APPENDIX  E  561 

obliterative  effect,  insisting  that,  owing  to  the  obliterative  coloration,  zebras 
continually  escape  observation  in  the  country  in  which  they  live.  He  con- 
tinues: "Furthermore,  all  beasts  must  have  water,  and  so  the  zebras  of 
the  dry  plains  must  needs  make  frequent  visits  to  the  nearest  living  sloughs 
and  rivers.  There,  by  the  water's  edge,  tall  reeds  and  grasses  almost 
always  flourish,  and  there,  where  all  beasts  meet  to  drink,  is  the  great  place 
of  danger  for  the  ruminants,  and  all  on  whom  the  lion  preys.  In  the 
open  land  they  can  often  detect  their  enemy  afar  off,  and  depend  on 
their  fleetness  for  escape;  but  when  they  are  down  in  the  river-bed,  among 
the  reeds,  he  may  approach  unseen  and  leap  among  them  without  warn- 
ing. It  is  probably  at  these  drinking-places  that  the  zebra's  pattern  is 
most  beneficently  potent.  From  far  or  near  the  watching  eye  of  the 
hunter  (bestial  or  human)  is  likely  to  see  nothing,  or  nothing  but  reed- 
stripes,  where  it  might  otherwise  detect  the  contour  of  a  zebra."  In  a 
foot-note  he  adds  that  however  largely  lions  and  other  rapacious  mammals 
hunt  by  scent,  it  is  only  sight  that  serves  them  when  they  are  down  wind 
of  their  quarry;  and  that  sight  alone  must  guide  their  ultimate  killing 
dash  and  spring. 

Now  this  theory  of  Mr.  Thayer's  about  the  benefit  of  the  zebra's 
coloration  at  drinking-places,  as  a  shield  against  foes,  lacks  even  the  slight- 
est foundation  in  fact;  for  it  is  self-evident  that  animals  when  they  come 
down  to  drink  necessarily  move.  The  moment  that  any  animal  the  size 
of  a  zebra  moves,  it  at  once  becomes  visible  to  the  eye  of  its  human  or 
bestial  foes,  unless  it  skulks  in  the  most  cautious  manner.  The  zebra 
never  skulks,  and,  like  most  of  the  plains  game,  it  never,  at  least  when 
adult,  seeks  to  escape  observation — indeed  in  the  case  of  the  zebra  (un- 
like what  is  true  of  the  antelope)  I  am  not  sure  that  even  the  young 
seek  to  escape  observation.  I  have  many  times  watched  zebras  and 
antelopes — wildebeest,  hartebeest,  gazelle,  waterbuck,  kob — coming  down 
to  water;  their  conduct  was  substantially  similar.  The  zebras,  for 
instance,  made  no  effort  whatever  to  escape  observation;  they  usually 
went  to  some  drinking-place  as  clear  of  reeds  as  possible;  but  sometimes 
they  were  forced  to  come  down  to  drink  where  there  was  rather  thick 
cover,  in  which  case  they  always  seemed  more  nervous,  more  on  the 
alert,  and  quicker  in  their  movements.  They  came  down  in  herds,  and 
they  would  usually  move  forward  by  fits  and  starts;  that  is,  travel  a 
few  hundred  yards,  and  then  stop  and  stand  motionless  for  some  time, 
looking  around.  They  were  always  very  conspicuous,  and  it  was  quite 
impossible  for  any  watcher  to  fail  to  make  them  out.  As  they  came  nearer 
to  the  water,  they  seemed  to  grow  more  cautious.  They  would  move 
forward  some  distance,  halt,  perhaps  wheel  and  dash  off  for  a  hundred 
yards,  and  then  after  a  little  while  return.  As  they  got  near  the  water 
they  would  again  wait,  and  then  march  boldly  down  to  drink — ^except 
in  one  case  where,  after  numerous  false  starts,  they  finally  seemed  to 
suspect  that  there  was  something  in  the  neighborhood,  and  went  off  for 
good  without  drinking.  Never  in  any  case  did  I  see  a  zebra  come  down 
to  drink  under  conditions  which  would  have  rendered  it  possible  for  the 

36 


56^  APPENDIX  E 

most  dull-sighted  beast  to  avoid  seeing  it.  Of  course  I  usually  watched 
the  pools  and  rivers  when  there  was  daylight;  but  after  nightfall  the 
zebra's  stripes  would  be  entirely  invisible,  so  that  their  only  effect  at  the 
drinking-place  must  be  in  the  daytime;  and  in  the  daytime  there  was 
absolutely  no  effect,  and  the  zebras  that  I  saw  could  by  no  possibility 
have  escaped  observation  from  a  lion,  for  they  made  no  effort  whatever 
thus  to  escape  observation,  but  moved  about  continually,  and,  after  drink- 
ing, retired  to  the  open  ground. 

The  zebra's  coloration  is  certainly  never  of  use  to  him  in  helping  him 
escape  observation  at  a  drinking-place.  But  neither  is  it  of  use  to  him 
in  escaping  observation  anywhere  else.  As  I  have  said  before,  there  are 
of  course  circumstances  under  which  any  pattern  or  coloration  will  har- 
monize with  the  environment.  Once  I  came  upon  zebras  standing  in 
partially  burned  grass,  some  of  the  yellow  stalks  still  erect,  and  here  the 
zebras  were  undoubtedly  less  conspicuous  than  the  red-coated  hartebeests 
with  which  they  were  associated;  but  as  against  the  one  or  two  occasions 
where  I  have  seen  the  zebra's  coat  make  it  less  conspicuous  than  most 
other  animals,  there  have  been  scores  where  it  has  been  more  conspicu- 
ous. I  think  it  would  be  a  safe  estimate  to  say  that  for  one  occasion  on 
which  the  coloration  of  the  zebra  serves  it  for  purposes  of  concealment 
from  any  enemy,  there  are  scores,  or  more  likely  hundreds,  of  occasions 
when  it  reveals  it  to  an  enemy;  while  in  the  great  majority  of  instances 
it  has  no  effect  one  way  or  the  other.  The  different  effects  of  light  and 
shade  make  different  patterns  of  coloration  more  or  less  visible  on  different 
occasions.  There  have  been  occasions  when  I  have  seen  antelopes  quicker 
than  I  have  seen  the  zebra  with  which  they  happened  to  be  associated. 
More  often,  the  light  has  been  such  that  I  have  seen  the  zebra  first.  Where 
I  was,  in  Africa,  the  zebra  herds  were  on  the  same  ground,  and  often 
associated  with,  eland,  oryx,  wildebeest,  topi,  hartebeest.  Grant's  ga- 
zelle, and  Thomson's  gazelle.  Of  all  these  animals,  the  wildebeest,  be- 
cause of  its  dark  coloration,  was  the  most  conspicuous  and  most  readily 
seen.  The  topi  also  usually  looked  very  dark.  Both  of  these  animals 
were  ordinarily  made  out  at  longer  distances  than  the  others.  The  ga- 
zelles, partly  from  their  small  size  and  partly  from  their  sandy  coloration, 
were,  I  should  say,  usually  a  little  harder  to  make  out  than  the  others. 
The  remaining  animals  were  conspicuous  or  not,  largely  as  the  light 
happened  to  strike  them.  Ordinarily,  if  zebras  were  mixed  with  elands 
or  oryx  I  saw  the  zebras  before  seeing  the  eland  and  oryx,  although  I 
ought  to  add  that  my  black  companions  on  these  occasions  usually  made 
out  both  sets  of  animals  at  the  same  time.  But  in  mixed  herds  of  harte- 
beests and  zebras,  I  have  sometimes  seen  the  hartebeests  first  and  some- 
times the  zebras.* 

*  Mr.  Thayer  tries  to  show  that  the  cross  stripes  on  the  legs  of  zebras  are  of  pro- 
tective value;  he  has  forgotten  that  in  the  typical  Burchell's  zebra  the  legs  are  white; 
whether  they  are  striped  or  not  is  evidently  of  no  consequence  from  the  protective  stand- 
point. There  is  even  less  basis  for  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  that  the  stripings  on  the  legs 
of  elands  and  one  or  two  other  antelopes  have  any,  even  the  slightest,  protective  value, 


APPENDIX  E  563 

The  truth  Is  that  this  plains  ^ame  never  seeks  to  escape  ohscrvation 
at  all,  and  that  the  coloration  patterns  of  the  various  animals  are  not 
concealino;  and  are  of  practically  no  use  whatever  in  protecting;  the  ani- 
mals from  their  toes.  The  beasts  above  enumerated  are  colored  in  widely 
ditterent  fashions.  If"  any  one  of  them  was  roally  obliteratively  colored, 
it  would  mean  that  some  or  all  of  the  others  were  not  so  colored.  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  none  of  them  instances  of  concealinj!;  colora- 
tion; none  of  the  beasts  seek  to  escape  observation,  or  trust  for  safety 
to  eluding  the  sight  of  their  foes.  When  they  lie  down  they  almost  always 
lie  down  in  very  open  ground,  where  they  are  readily  seen,  and  where  they 
can  hope  to  see  their  foes.  When  topi,  roan  antelope,  hartebeest,  and 
so  forth,  are  standing  head  on,  the  under  parts  look  darker  instead  of 
lighter  than  the  upper  parts,  so  that  in  this  common  position  there  is  no 
"counter-shading."  The  roan  and  oryx  have  nearly  uniform  colored  coats 
which  often  do  harmonize  with  their  surroundings;  but  their  bold  face 
markings  are  conspicuous.*  None  of  these  big  or  medium  sized  plains 
animals,  while  healthy  and  unhurt,  seeks  to  escape  observation  by 
hiding. 

This  is  the  direct  reverse  of  what  occurs  with  many  bush  antelopes. 
Undoubtedly  many  of  the  latter  do  seek  to  escape  observation.  I  have 
seen  waterbucks  stand  perfectly  still,  and  then  steal  cautiously  off"  through 
the  brush;  and  I  have  seen  duiker  and  steinbuck  lie  down  and  stretch  their 
heads  out  flat  on  the  ground  when  they  noticed  a  horseman  approaching 
from  some  distance.  Yet  even  in  these  cases  it  is  very  hard  to  say  whether 
their  coloration  is  really  protective.  The  steinbuck,  a  very  common 
little  antelope,  is  of  a  foxy  red,  which  is  decidedly  conspicuous.  The 
duiker  lives  in  the  same  localities,  and  seems  to  me  to  be  more  protectively 
colored — at  any  rate,  if  the  coloration  is  protective  for  one  it  certainly 
is  not  for  the  other.  The  bushbuck  is  a  boldly  colored  beast,  and  I  do 
not  believe  for  a  moment  that  it  ever  owes  its  safety  to  protective  colora- 
tion. The  reedbuck,  which  in  manners  corresponds  to  our  white-tailed 
deer,  may  very  possibly  at  times  be  helped  by  its  coloration,  although 
my  own  belief  is  that  all  these  bush  creatures  owe  their  power  of  conceal- 
ment primarily  to  their  caution,  noiselessness,  and  power  to  remain  motion- 
less, rather  than  to  any  pattern  of  coloration.  But  all  of  these  animals 
undoubtedly  spend  much  of  their  time  in  trying  to  elude  observation. 

On  the  open  plains,  however,  nothing  of  the  kind  happens.  The  little 
tommy  gazelle,  for  instance,  never  strives  to  escape  observation.  It  has 
a  habit  of  constantly  jerking  its  tail  in  a  w^ay  which  immediately  attracts 
notice,  even  if  it  is  not  moving  otherwise.  When  it  lies  down,  its  oblitera- 
tive  shading  entirely  disappears,  because  it  has  a  very  vivid  black  line 
along  its  side,  and  when  recumbent — or  indeed  for  the  matter  of  that 
when  standing  up — ^this  black  line  at  once  catches  the  eye.  However, 
when  standing,   it  can   be  seen   at  once  anyhow.     The   bigger  Grant's 

*  A  curious  instance  of  the  lengths  to  which  some  protective-coloration  theorists  go 
is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  they  actually  treat  these  bold  markings  as  oblitcrative  or 
concealing.  In  actual  fact  the  reverse  is  true;  these  face  markings  are  much  more  apt 
to  advertise  the  animal's  presence. 


564  APPENDIX  E 

gazelle  is,  as  far  as  the  adult  male  is  concerned,  a  little  better  off  than  the 
tommy,  because  the  bucks  have  not  got  the  conspicuous  black  lateral 
stripe;  but  this  is  possessed  by  both  the  young  and  the  does — who  stand 
in  much  more  need  of  concealing  coloration.  But  as  I  have  already 
so  often  said,  neither  concealment  nor  concealing  coloration  plays  any 
part  whatever  in  protecting  these  animals  from  their  foes.  There  is 
never  any  difficulty  in  seeing  them;  the  difficulty  is  to  prevent  their  see- 
ing the  hunter. 

Mr.  Thayer's  thesis  is  "that  all  patterns  and  colors  whatsoever  of 
all  animals  that  ever  prey  or  are  preyed  on  are  under  certain  normal 
circumstances  obliterative."  Either  this  sentence  is  entirely  incorrect 
or  else  it  means  nothing;  either  no  possible  scheme  of  coloration  can 
be  imagined  which  is  not  protective  (in  which  case  of  course  the  whole 
theory  becomes  meaningless)  or  else  the  statement  so  sweepingly  made  is 
entirely  incorrect.  As  I  have  already  shown,  there  are  great  numbers 
of  animals  to  which  it  cannot  apply;  and  some  of  the  very  animals  which 
do  escape  observation  in  complete  fashion  are  colored  utterly  differently 
when  compared  one  with  the  other,  although  their  habitats  are  the  same. 
The  intricate  pattern  of  the  leopard  and  the  uniform,  simple  pattern 
of  the  cougar  seem  equally  efficient  under  precisely  similar  conditions; 
and  so  do  all  the  intermediate  patterns  when  the  general  tint  is  neutral; 
and  even  the  strikingly  colored  melanistic  forms  of  these  creatures  seem 
as  well  fed  and  successful  as  the  others.  Mono-colored  cougars  and 
spotted  jaguars,  black  leopards  and  spotted  leopards,  and  other  cats  of 
all  tints  and  shades,  broken  or  unbroken,  are  frequently  found  in  the 
same  forests,  dwelling  under  precisely  similar  conditions,  and  all  equally 
successful  in  eluding  observation  and  in  catching  their  prey. 

One  of  the  most  extreme,  and  most  unwarrantable,  of  the  positions 
taken  by  the  ultra-advocates  of  the  protective  coloration  theory  is  that 
in  reference  to  certain  boldly  marked  black  and  white  animals,  like 
skunks  and  Colobus  monkeys,  whose  coloration  patterns  they  assert  to  be 
obliterative.  In  skunks,  the  coloration  is  certainly  not  protective  in  any 
way  against  foes,  as  every  human  being  must  know  if  he  has  ever  come 
across  skunks  by  night  or  by  day  in  the  wilderness;  their  coloration  adver- 
tises their  presence  to  all  other  creatures  which  might  prey  on  them.  In 
all  probability,  moreover,  it  is  not  of  the  slightest  use  in  helping  them  ob- 
tain the  little  beasts  on  which  they  themselves  prey.  Mr.  Thayer's  "sky- 
pattern"  theory  about  skunks  cannot  apply,  for  bears,  which  are  equally 
good  mousers  and  insect  grubbers,  have  no  white  on  them,  nor  have 
fishers,  weasels,  raccoons,  or  foxes;  and  in  any  event  the  "sky-pattern" 
would  not  as  often  obliterate  the  skunk  from  the  view  of  its  prey  as  it 
would  advertise  it  to  its  prey.  It  is  to  the  last  degree  unlikely  that  any 
mouse  or  insect  is  ever  more  easily  caught  because  of  the  white  "sky- 
pattern"  on  the  skunk;  and  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  any  of  these 
little  creatures  that  trust  to  their  eyes  at  all  must  have  their  vision  readily 
attracted  by  the  skunk's  bold  coloration;  and  the  skunk's  method  of 
hunting  is  incompatible  with  deriving  benefit  from  its  coloration.  Besides, 
it  usually  hunts  at  night,  and   at  night  the  white  "  sky-pattern  "  is   not  a 


APPENDIX  E  565 

sky-pattern  at  all,  but  is  exceedingly  conspicuous,  serving  as  an  adver- 
tisement. 

The  big  black-and-white  Colobus  monkey  has  been  adduced  as 
an  instance  of  the  "concealing"  quality  of  bold  and  conspicuous  colora- 
tion patterns.  Of  course,  as  I  have  said  before,  there  is  no  conceivable 
pattern  which  may  not,  under  some  wholly  exceptional  circumstances, 
be  of  use  from  the  protective  stand-point;  a  soldier  in  a  black  frock- 
coat  and  top  hat,  with  white  duck  trousers,  might  conceivably  in  the 
course  of  some  city  fight  get  into  a  coal  cellar  with  a  white-washed 
floor,  and  find  that  the  "coloration  pattern"  of  his  preposterous  uni- 
form was  protective;  and  really  it  would  be  no  more  misleading  to 
speak  of  such  a  soldier's  dress  as  protective  compared  to  khaki,  than  it 
is  to  speak  of  the  Colobus  monkey's  coloration  as  protective  when 
compared  with  the  colorations  of  the  duller-colored  monkeys  of  other 
species  that  are  found  in  the  same  forests.  When  hunting  with  the  wild 
'Ndorobo  I  often  found  it  impossible  to  see  the  ordinary  monkeys,  which 
they  tried  to  point  out  to  me,  before  the  latter  fled;  but  I  rarely  failed  to 
see  the  Colobus  monkey  when  it  was  pointed  out.  In  the  tops  of  the 
giant  trees,  any  monkey  that  stood  motionless  was  to  my  eyes  diflficult 
to  observe,  but  nine  times  out  of  ten  it  was  the  dull-colored  monkey, 
and  not  the  black-and-white  Colobus,  which  was  most  difficult  to  observe. 
I  questioned  the  'Ndorobos  as  to  which  they  found  hardest  to  see  and, 
rather  to  my  amusement,  at  first  they  could  not  understand  my  question, 
simply  because  they  could  not  understand  failing  to  make  out  either;  but 
when  they  did  understand,  they  always  responded  that  the  black-and- 
white  Colobus  was  the  monkey  easiest  to  see  and  easiest  to  kill.  These 
monkeys  stretch  nearly  across  Africa,  from  a  form  at  one  extremity  of  the 
range  which  is  almost  entirely  black,  to  a  form  at  the  other  extremity 
of  the  range  which  is  mainly  or  most  conspicuously  white.  Of  course  it 
is  quite  impossible  that  both  forms  can  be  protectively  colored;  and  as 
a  matter  of  fact  neither  is. 

I  am  not  speaking  of  the  general  theory  of  protective  coloration.  I 
am  speaking  of  certain  phases  thereof  as  to  which  I  have  made  obser- 
vations at  first-hand.  I  have  studied  the  facts  as  regards  big  game  and 
certain  other  animals,  and  I  am  convinced  that  as  regards  these  animals 
the  protective-coloration  theory  either  does  not  apply  at  all  or  applies 
so  little  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  accept  with  the  utmost  reseive  the 
sweeping  generalizations  of  Mr.  Thayer  and  the  protective  coloration 
extremists.  It  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  subject.  It  certainly  seems 
that  the  theory  must  apply  as  regards  many  animals;  but  it  is  even  more 
certain  that  it  does  not,  as  its  advocates  claim,  apply  universally;  and 
careful  study  and  cautious  generalizations  are  imperatively  necessary  in 
striving  to  apply  it  extensively,  while  fanciful  and  impossible  efforts  to 
apply  it  where  it  certainly  does  not  apply  can  do  no  real  good.  It  is 
necessary  to  remember  that  some  totally  different  principle,  in  addition 
to  or  in  substitution  for  protective  coloration,  must  have  been  at  work 
where  totally  different  colorations  and  color  patterns  seem  to  bring  the 
same  results  to  the  wearers.     The  bear  and  the  skunk  are  both  catch- 


^66  APPENDIX  E 

ers  of  small  rodents,  and  when  the  color  patterns  of  the  back,  nose, 
and  breast,  for  instance,  are  directly  opposite  in  the  two  animals,  there  is 
at  least  need  of  very  great  caution  in  deciding  that  either  represents 
obliterative  coloration  of  a  sort  that  benefits  the  creature  in  catching  its 
prey.  Similarly,  to  say  that  white  herons  and  pelicans  and  roseate-colored 
flamingoes  and  spoon-bills  are  helped  by  their  coloration,  when  other  birds 
that  live  exactly  in  the  same  fashion  and  just  as  successfully,  are  black,  or 
brown,  or  black  and  white,  or  gray,  or  green,  or  blue,  certainly  represents 
mere  presumption,  as  yet  unaccompanied  by  a  vestige  of  proof,  and 
probably  represents  error.  There  is  probably  much  in  the  general  theory 
of  concealment  coloration,  but  it  is  not  possible  to  say  how  much  until 
it  is  thoroughly  tested  by  men  who  do  not  violate  the  advice  of  the  French 
scientific  professor  to  his  pupils:  "Above  all  things  remember  in  the 
course  of  your  investigations  that  if  you  determine  to  find  out  something 
you  will  probably  do  so." 

I  have  dealt  chiefly  with  big  game.  But  I  think  it  high  time  that  sober 
scientific  men  desirous  to  find  out  facts  should  not  leave  this  question  of 
concealing  coloration  or  protective  coloration  to  theorists  who,  however 
able,  become  so  interested  in  their  theory  that  they  lose  the  capacity  to 
state  facts  exactly.  Mr.  Thayer  and  the  various  gentlemen  who  share 
his  views  have  undoubtedly  made  some  very  interesting  discoveries, 
and  it  may  well  be  that  these  discoveries  are  of  wide-spread  importance. 
But  they  must  be  most  carefully  weighed,  considered,  and  corrected 
by  capable  scientific  men  before  it  is  possible  to  say  how  far  the  theory 
applies  and  what  limitations  there  are  to  it.  At  present  all  that  is  abso- 
lutely certain  is  that  it  does  not  apply  anywhere  near  as  extensively  as 
Mr.  Thayer  alleges,  and  that  he  is  so  completely  mistaken  as  to  some  of 
his  facts  as  to  make  it  necessary  carefully  to  reconsider  most  of  the  others. 
I  have  shown  that  as  regards  most  kinds  of  big  game  which  inhabit  open 
places  and  do  not  seek  to  escape  observation  but  trust  to  their  own 
wariness  for  protection,  his  theories  do  not  apply  at  all.  They  cer- 
tainly do  not  apply  at  all  to  various  other  mammals.  Many  of  his 
sweeping  assertions  are  certainly  not  always  true,  and  may  not  be  true 
in  even  a  very  small  number  of  cases.  Thus,  in  his  introductory,  Mr. 
Thayer  says  of  birds  that  the  so-called  "nuptial  colors,  etc.,  are  con- 
fined to  situations  where  the  same  colors  are  to  be  found  in  the  wearer's 
background,  either  at  certain  periods  of  his  life  or  all  the  time,"  and 
that  apparently  not  one  of  these  colors  "exists  anywhere  in  the  world 
where  there  is  not  every  reason  to  believe  it  the  very  best  conceivable 
device  for  the  concealment  of  its  wearer,  either  throughout  the  main 
part  of  this  wearer's  life  or  under  certain  peculiarly  important  cir- 
cumstances." It  is  really  difficult  to  argue  about  a  statement  so  flatly 
contradicted  by  ordinary  experience.  Taking  at  random  two  of  the 
common  birds  around  our  own  homes,  it  is  only  necessary  to  consider 
the  bobolink  and  the  scarlet  tanager.  The  males  of  these  two  birds  in 
the  breeding  season  put  on  liveries  which  are  not  only  not  the  "very  best 
conceivable"  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  the  very  worst  conceivable  devices 
for  the  concealment  of  the  wearers.    If  the  breeding  cock  bobolink  and 


APPENDIX  E  567 

breeding  cock  tanager  are  not  colored  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  to 
attract  attention,  if  they  are  not  so  colored  as  to  make  it  impossible  for 
them  to  be  more  conspicuous,  then  it  is  absolutely  hopeless  for  man  or 
Nature  or  any  power  above  or  under  the  earth  to  devise  any  scheme 
of  coloration  whatsoever  which  shall  not  be  concealing  or  protective; 
and  in  such  case  Mr.  Thayer's  whole  argument  is  a  mere  play  upon 
words.  In  sufficiently  thick  cover,  whether  of  trees  or  grass,  any  small 
animal  of  any  color  or  shape  may,  if  motionless,  escape  observation;  but 
the  coloration  patterns  of  the  breeding  bobolink  and  breeding  tanager 
males,  so  far  from  being  concealing  or  protective,  are  in  the  highest  degree 
advertising;  and  the  same  is  true  of  multitudes  of  birds,  of  the  red-winged 
blackbird,  ot  the  yellow-headed  grackle,  of  the  wood-duck,  of  the  spruce 
grouse,  of  birds  which  could  be  mentioned  ofF-hand  by  the  hundred,  and 
probably,  after  a  little  study,  by  the  thousand.  As  regards  many  of  these 
birds,  the  coloration  can  never  be  protective  or  concealing;  as  regards 
others,  it  may  under  certain  rare  combinations  of  conditions,  like  those 
set  forth  in  some  of  Mr.  Thayer's  ingenious  but  misleading  colored 
pictures*  serve,  for  concealment  or  protection,  but  in  an  infinitely  larger 
number  of  cases  it  serves  simply  to  advertise  and  attract  attention  to  the 
wearers.  As  regards  these  cases,  and  countless  others,  Mr.  Thayer's 
theories  seem  to  me  without  substantial  foundation  in  fact,  and  other 
influences  than  those  he  mentions  must  be  responsible  for  the  color- 
ation. It  may  be  that  his  theories  really  do  not  apply  to  a  very  large 
number  of  animals  which  are  colored  white,  or  are  pale  in  tint,  beneath. 
For  instance,  in  the  cases  of  creatures  like  those  snakes  and  mice — where 
the  white  or  pale  tint  beneath  can  never  be  seen  by  either  their  foes  or 
their  prey — -this  "counter-shading"  may  be  due  to  some  cause  wholly 
different  from  anything  concerned  with  protection  or  concealment. 

There  are  other  problems  of  coloration  for  which  Mr.  Thayer  pro- 
fesses to  give  an  explanation  where  this  explanation  breaks  down  for  a 
different  reason.  The  cougar's  coloration,  for  instance,  is  certainly  in  a 
high  degree  concealing  and  protective,  or  at  any  rate  it  is  such  that  it 
does  not  interfere  with  the  animal's  protecting  itself  by  concealment,  for 
the  cougar  is  one  of  the  most  elusive  of  creatures,  one  oi  the  most  difficult 
to  see,  either  by  the  hunter  who  follows  it  or  by  the  animal  on  which  it 
preys.  But  the  cougar  is  found  in  every  kind  of  country — in  northern 
pine  woods,  in  thick  tropical  forests,  on  barren  plains,  and  among  rocky 
mountains.  Mr.  Thayer  in  his  introduction  states  that  "one  may  read 
on  an  animal's  coat  the  main  facts  of  his  habits  and  habitat,  without 
ever  seeing  him  in  his  home."  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  he 
would  apply  this  statement  to  the  cougar,  and,  if  he  knew  nothing  about 
the  animal,  tell  from  its  coat  which  specimen  lived  in  a  Wisconsin  pine 
forest,  which  among  stunted  cedars  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  which  on 
the  snow-line  of  the  Andes,  which  in  the  forest  of  the  Amazon,  and  which 
on  the  plains  of  Patagonia.     With  which   habitat   is   the   cougar's  coat 

*  Some  of  the  pictures  are  excellent,  and  undoubtedly  put  the  facts  truthfully  and 
clearly;  others  portrav  as  normal  conditions  which  are  wholly  abnormal  and  exceptional, 
and  are  therefore  completely  misleading. 


568  APPENDIX   E 

supposed  especially  to  harmonize  ?  A  lioness  is  colored  like  a  cougar, 
and  in  Africa  we  found  by  actual  experience  that  the  very  differently 
colored  leopard  and  lioness  and  cheetah  and  serval  were,  when  in  pre- 
cisely similar  localities,  equally  difficult  to  observe.  It  almost  seems 
as  if  with  many  animals  the  matter  of  coloration  is  immaterial,  so 
far  as  concealment  is  concerned,  compared  with  the  ability  of  the  ani- 
mal to  profit  by  cover  and  to  crouch  motionless  or  slink  stealthily 
along. 

Again,  there  seems  to  be  much  truth  in  Mr.  Thayer's  statement  of 
the  concealing  quality  of  most  mottled  snake  skins.  But  Mr.  Thayer 
does  not  touch  on  the  fact  that  in  exactly  the  same  localities  as  those  where 
these  mottled  snakes  dwell,  there  are  often-  snakes  entirely  black  or  brown 
or  green,  and  yet  all  seem  to  get  along  equally  well,  to  escape  equally 
well  from  their  foes,  and  prey  with  equal  ease  on  smaller  animals.  In 
Africa,  the  two  most  common  poisonous  snakes  we  found  were  the 
black  cobra  and  the  mottled  puff  adder.  If  the  coloration  of  one  was 
that  best  suited  for  concealment,  then  the  reverse  was  certainly  true  of 
the  coloration  of  the  other. 

But  perhaps  the  climax  of  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  is  reached  when  he 
suddenly  applies  it  to  human  beings,  saying:  "Among  the  aboriginal 
human  races,  the  various  war-paints,  tattooings,  head  decorations,  and 
appendages,  such  as  the  long,  erect  mane  of  eagle  feathers  worn  by  North 
American  Indians — all  these,  whatever  purposes  their  wearers  believe  they 
serve,  do  tend  to  obliterate  them,  precisely  as  similar  devices  obliterate 
animals."  Now  this  simply  is  not  so,  and  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
understand  how  any  man  trained  to  proper  scientific  observation  can 
believe  it  to  be  so.  The  Indian,  and  the  savage  generally,  have  a  mar- 
vellous and  wild-beast-like  knack  of  concealing  themselves.  I  have  seen 
in  Africa  'Ndorobo  hunters,  one  clad  in  a  white  blanket  and  one  in  a  red 
one,  coming  close  toward  elephants,  and  yet,  thanks  to  their  skill,  less 
apt  to  be  observed  than  I  was  in  dull-colored  garments.  So  I  have 
seen  an  Indian  in  a  rusty  frock-coat  and  a  battered  derby  hat  make  a 
successful  stalk  on  a  deer  which  a  white  hunter  would  have  had  some 
difficulty  in  approaching.  But  when  the  'Ndorobos  got  to  what  they — not 
I — considered  close  quarters,  they  quietly  dropped  the  red  or  white 
blankets;  and  an  Indian  would  take  similar  pains  when  it  came  to  mak- 
ing what  he  regarded  as  a  difficult  stalk.  The  feathered  head-dress  to 
which  Mr.  Thayer  alludes  would  be  almost  as  conspicuous  as  a  sun 
umbrella,  and  an  Indian  would  no  more  take  it  out  on  purpose  to  go 
stalking  in  than  a  white  hunter  would  attempt  the  same  feat  with  an  open 
umbrella.  The  same  is  true  of  the  paint  and  tattooing  of  which  Mr. 
Thayer  speaks,  where  they  are  sufficiently  conspicuous  to  be  visible 
from  any  distance.  Not  only  do  the  war-bonnets  and  war-paint  of  the 
American  Indians  and  other  savages  have  no  concealing  or  protective 
quality,  as  Mr.  Thayer  supposes,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  highly 
conspicuous;  and  this  I  know  by  actual  experience,  by  having  seen  in 
the  open,  savages  thus  arrayed,  and  compared  them  with  the  aspect  of 
the  same  savages  when  hunting. 


APPENDIX  F 

The  original  list  of  the  "Pigskin  Library"  was  as  follows: 

Bible. 

Apocrypha. 

Borrow     . Bible  in  Spain. 

Zingali. 

Lavengro. 

Wild  Wales. 

The  Romany  Rye. 
Shakespeare. 

Spenser    .      .      . Faerie  Quecne. 

Marlowe. 

Mahan     .      .      . Sea  Power. 

Macaulay History. 

Essays. 

Poems. 
Homer Iliad. 

Odyssey. 
Chanson  de  Roland. 
Nibelungenlied. 

Carlyle Frederick  the  Great. 

Shelley Poems. 

Bacon Essays. 

Lowell Literary  Essays. 

Biglow  Papers. 

Emerson Poems. 

Longfellow. 

Tennyson. 

Poe     . Tales. 

Poems. 
Keats. 

Milton Paradise  Lost  (Books  I  and  II). 

Dante Inferno  (Carlyle's  translation). 

Holmes     .      .  , .     Autocrat. 

Over  the  Teacups. 
Bret  Harte Poems. 

Tales  of  the  Argonauts. 

Luck  of  Roaring  Camp. 

Browning Selections. 

Crothers         Gentle  Reader. 

Pardoner's  Wallet. 
Mark  Twain Huckleberry  Finn. 

Tom  Sawyer. 
Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress." 
Euripides  (Murray's  translation)         .      .      .     Hippolytus. 

Bacchae. 
569 


570  APPENDIX  F 

The  Federalist. 

Gregorovius Rome. 

Scott Legend  of  Montrose. 

Guy  Mannering. 

Waverley. 

Rob  Roy. 

Antiquary. 
Cooper Pilot. 

Two  Admirals. 
Froissart. 
Percy's  Reliques. 
Thackeray Vanity  Fair 

Pendennis. 

Dickens Mutual  Friend. 

Pickwick. 

I  received  so  many  inquiries  about  the  Pigskin  Library  (as  the  list 
appeared  in  the  first  chapter  of  my  African  articles  in  Scribner's  Maga- 
zine [see  page  29] ),  and  so  many  comments  were  made  upon  it,  often 
in  connection  with  the  Hst  of  books  recently  made  public  by  ex-President 
Eliot,  of  Harvard,  that  I  may  as  well  myself  add  a  word  on  the  subject. 

In  addition  to  the  books  originally  belonging  to  the  "library,"  vari- 
ous others  were  from  time  to  time  added;  among  them,  "Alice  in 
Wonderland"  and  "Through  the  Looking-Glass,"  Dumas's  "Louves 
de  Machekoule,"  "Tartarin  de  Tarascon"  (not  until  after  I  had  shot 
my  lions!),  Maurice  Egan's  "Wiles  of  Sexton  Maginnis,"  James  Lane 
Allen's  "Summer  in  Arcady,"  William  Allen  White's  "A  Certain  Rich 
Man,"  George  Meredith's  "Farina,"  and  d'Aurevilly's  "Chevalier  des 
Touches."  I  also  had  sent  out  to  me  Darwin's  "Origin  of  Species" 
and  "Voyage  of  the  Beagle,"  Huxley's  Essays,  Frazer's  "Passages  from 
the  Bible,"  Braithwaite's  "Book  of  Elizabethan  Verse,"  FitzGerald's 
"Omar  Khayyam,"  Gobineau's  "Inegalite  des  Races  Humaines"  (a  well- 
written  book,  containing  some  good  guesses;  but  for  a  student  to  approach 
it  for  serious  information  would  be  much  as  if  an  albatross  should  apply 
to  a  dodo  for  an  essay  on  flight),  "  Don  Quixote,"  Montaigne,  Mo- 
liere,  Goethe's  "Faust,"  Green's  "Short  History  of  the  English  People," 
Pascal,  Voltaire's  "Siecle  de  Louis  XIV,"  the  "Memoires  de  M.  Simon" 
(to  read  on  the  way  home),  and  "The  Soul's  Inheritance,"  by  George 
Cabot  Lodge.  Where  possible  I  had  them  bound  in  pigskin.  They 
were  for  use,  not  ornament.  I  almost  always  had  some  volume  with 
me,  either  in  my  saddle  pocket  or  in  the  cartridge-bag  which  one  of 
my  gun-bearers  carried  to  hold  odds  and  ends.  Often  my  reading 
would  be  done  while  resting  under  a  tree  at  noon,  perhaps  beside  the 
carcass  of  a  beast  I  had  killed,  or  else  while  waiting  for  camp  to  be  pitched; 
and  in  either  case  it  might  be  impossible  to  get  water  for  washing.  In 
consequence  the  books  were  stained  with  blood,  sweat,  gun  oil,  dust, 
and  ashes;  ordinary  bindings  either  vanished  or  became  loathsome, 
whereas  pigskin  merely  grew  to  look  as  a  well-used  saddle  looks. 


AH^ENDIX  P  571 

Now,  it  ought  to  be  evident,  on  a  mere  (glance  at  the  complett  iist,  both 
that  the  books  themselves  are  of  unequal  value  and  also  that  they  were 
chosen  for  various  reasons,  and  for  this  particular  trip.  Some  few  of 
them  I  would  take  with  me  on  any  trip  of  like  length;  but  the  majority 
I  should  of  course  change  for  others — as  good  and  no  better — were  I  to 
start  on  another  such  trip.  On  trips  of  various  length  in  recent  years 
I  have  taken,  among  many  other  books,  the  "Memoirs  of  Marbot," 
iEschylus,  Sophocles,  Aristotle,  Joinville's  "History  of  St.  Louis,"  the 
Odyssey  (Palmer's  translation),  volumes  of  Gibbon  and  Parkman,  Louns- 
bury's  Chaucer,  Theocritus,  Lea's  "History  of  the  Inquisition,"  Lord 
Acton's  Essays,  and  Ridgeway's  "Prehistoric  Greece."  Once  I  took 
Ferrero's  "History  of  Rome,"  and  liked  it  so  much  that  I  got  the  author 
to  come  to  America  and  stay  at  the  White  House;  once  De  La  Gorce's 
"History  of  the  Second  Republic  and  Second  Empire" — an  invaluable 
book.  I  did  not  regard  these  books  as  better  or  worse  than  those  I  left 
behind;  I  took  them  because  at  the  moment  I  wished  to  read  them.  The 
choice  would  largely  depend  upon  what  I  had  just  been  reading.  This 
time  I  took  Euripides,  because  I  had  just  been  reading  Murray's  "History 
of  the  Greek  Epic."  *  Having  become  interested  in  Mahaft'y's  essays  on 
Hellenistic  Greece,  I  took  Polybius  on  my  next  trip;  having  just  read 
Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler's  "History  of  Alexander,"  I  took  Arrian  on  my 
next  hunt;  something  having  started  me  reading  German  poetry,  I  once 
took  Schiller,  Koerner,  and  Heine  to  my  ranch;  another  time  I  started 
with  a  collection  of  essays  on  and  translations  from  early  Irish  poetry;  yet 
another  time  I  took  Morris's  translations  of  various  Norse  Sagas,  includ- 
ing the  Heimskringla,  and  liked  them  so  much  that  I  then  incautiously 
took  his  translation  of  Beowulf,  only  to  find  that  while  it  had  undoubtedly 
been  translated  out  of  Anglo-Saxon,  it  had  not  been  translated  into  Eng- 
lish, but  merely  into  a  language  bearing  a  specious  resemblance  thereto. 
Once  I  took  Sutherland's  "  History  of  the  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct"; 
but  I  did  not  often  take  scientific  books,  simply  because  as  yet  scientific 
books  rarely  have  literary  value.  Of  course  a  really  good  scientific  book 
should  be  as  interesting  to  read  as  any  other  good  book;  and  the  volume 
in  question  was  taken  because  it  fulfilled  this  requirement,  its  eminent 
Australian  author  being  not  only  a  learned  but  a  brilliant  man. 

I  as  emphatically  object  to  nothing  but  heavy  reading  as  I  do  to  nothing 
but  light  reading — all  that  is  indispensable  being  that  the  heavy  and  the 
light  reading  alike  shall  be  both  interesting  and  wholesome.  So  I  have 
always  carried  novels  with  me,  including,  as  a  rule,  some  by  living  au- 
thors, but  (unless  I  had  every  confidence  in  the  author)  only  if  I  had 
already  read  the  book.  Among  many,  I  remember  off-hand  a  few  such 
as  "The  Virginian,"  "Lin  McLean,"  "Puck  of  Pook's  Hill,"  "Uncle 
Remus,"  "Aaron  of  the  Wild  Woods,"  "Letters  of  a  Self-made  Mer- 
chant to  His  Son,"  "Many  Cargoes,"  "The  Gentleman  from  Indiana," 

*I  am  writing  on  the  White  Nile  from  memor_v;  the  titles  I  give  may  sometimes 
be  inaccurate,  and  I  cannot,  of  course^  begin  to  remember  all  the  books  I  have  at 
different  times  taken  out  with  me. 


572  APrENDIX   F 

"David  Harum,"  "The  Crisis,"  "The  Silent  Places,"  "Marse  Chan," 
"Soapy  Sponge's  Sporting  Tour,"  "All  on  the  Irish  Shore,"  "The  Blazed 
Trail,"  "Stratagems  and  Spoils,"  "Knights  in  Fustian,"  "Selma," 
"The  Taskmasters,"  Edith  Wyatt's  "Every  Man  to  His  Humor,"  the 
novels  and  stories  of  Octave  Thanet — I  v^ish  I  could  remember  more  of 
them,  for  personally  I  have  certainly  profited  as  much  by  reading  really 
good  and  interesting  novels  and  stories  as  by  reading  anything  else, 
and  from  the  contemporary  ones  I  have  often  reached,  as  in  no  other  way 
I  could  have  reached,  an  understanding  of  how  real  people  feel  in  certain 
country  districts,  and  in  certain  regions  of  great  cities  like  Chicago  and 
New  York, 

Of  course  I  also  generally  take  out  some  of  the  novels  of  those  great 
writers  of  the  past  whom  one  can  read  over  and  over  again;  and  occasion- 
ally one  by  some  writer  who  was  not  great — like  "The  Semi-attached 
Couple,"  a  charming  little  early- Victorian  or  pre- Victorian  tale  which 
I  suppose  other  people  cannot  like  as  I  do,  or  else  it  would  be  reprinted. 

Above  all,  let  me  insist  that  the  books  which  I  have  taken  were  and 
could  only  be  a  tiny  fraction  of  those  for  which  I  cared  and  which  I  con- 
tinually read,  and  that  I  care  for  them  neither  more  nor  less  than  for  those 
I  left  at  home.  I  took  "The  Deluge"  and  "Pan  Michael"  and  "Flight 
of  a  Tartar  Tribe,"  because  I  had  just  finished  "Fire  and  Sword"; 
"Moby  Dick,"  because  I  had  been  rereading  "Omoo"  and  "Typee"; 
Gogol's  "Taras  Bulba,"  because  I  wished  to  get  the  Cossack  view  of  what 
was  described  by  Sienkiewicz  from  the  Polish  side;  some  of  Maurice 
Jokai,  and  "St.  Peter's  Umbrella"  (I  am  not  at  all  sure  about  the  titles), 
because  my  attention  at  the  moment  was  on  Hungary;  and  the  novels  of 
Topelius  when  I  happened  to  be  thinking  of  Finland.  I  took  Dumas's 
cycle  of  romances  dealing  with  the  French  Revolution,  because  I  had 
just  finished  Carlyle's  work  thereon — and  I  felt  that  of  the  two  the  nov- 
elist was  decidedly  the  better  historian.  I  took  "Salammbo"  and  "The 
Nabob"  rather  than  scores  of  other  French  novels  simply  because  at  the 
moment  I  happened  to  see  them  and  think  that  I  would  like  to  read 
them.  I  doubt  if  I  ever  took  anything  of  Hawthorne's,  but  this  was  cer- 
tainly not  because  I  failed  to  recognize  his  genius. 

Now,  all  this  means  that  I  take  with  me  on  any  trip,  or  on  all  trips 
put  together,  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  books  that  I  like;  and 
that  I  like  very  many  and  very  different  kinds  of  books,  and  do  not  for 
a  moment  attempt  anything  so  preposterous  as  a  continual  comparison 
between  books  which  may  appeal  to  totally  different  sets  of  emotions. 
For  instance,  one  correspondent  pointed  out  to  me  that  Tennyson  was 
"trivial"  compared  to  Browning,  and  another  complained  that  I  had 
omitted  Walt  Whitman;  another  asked  why  I  put  Longfellow  "on  a 
level"  with  Tennyson.  I  believe  I  did  take  Walt  Whitman  on  one  hunt, 
and  I  like  Browning,  Tennyson,  and  Longfellow,  all  of  them,  without 
thinking  it  necessary  to  compare  them.  It  is  largely  a  matter  of  personal 
taste.  In  a  recent  English  review  I  glanced  at  an  article  on  English  verse 
of  to-day  in  which,  after  enumerating  various  writers  of  the  first  and 


APPENDIX  F  573 

second  classes,  the  writer  stated  that  KipHng  was  at  the  head  of  the  third 
class  of  "ballad-mongers";  it  happened  that  I  had  never  even  heard 
of  most  of  the  men  he  mentioned  in  the  first  two  classes,  whereas  I  should 
be  surprised  to  find  that  there  was  any  one  of  Kipling's  poems  which 
I  did  not  already  know.  I  do  not  quarrel  with  the  taste  of  the  critic  in 
question,  but  I  see  no  reason  why  any  one  should  be  guided  by  it.  So 
with  Longfellow.  A  man  who  dislikes  or  looks  down  upon  simple  poetry, 
ballad  poetry,  will  not  care  for  Longfellow;  but  if  he  really  cares  for 
"Chevy  Chase,"  "Sir  Patrick  Spens,"  "Twa  Corbies,"  Michael  Dray- 
ton's "Agincourt,"  Scott's  "Harlaw,"  "Eve  of  St.  John,"  and  the  Flod- 
den  fight  in  "Marmion,"  he  will  be  apt  to  like  such  poems  as  the  "Saga 
of  King  Olaf,"  "Othere,"  "The  Driving  Cloud,"  "Belisarius,"  "Helen 
of  Tyre,"  "Enceladus,"  "The  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,"  "Paul 
Revere,"  and  "Simon  Danz."  I  am  exceedingly  fond  of  these,  and  of 
many,  many  other  poems  of  Longfellow.  This  does  not  interfere  in  the 
least  with  my  admiration  for  "Ulysses,"  "The  Revenge,"  "The  Palace 
of  Art,"  the  little  poems  in  "The  Princess,"  and  in  fact  most  of  Tenny- 
son. Nor  does  my  liking  for  Tennyson  prevent  my  caring  greatly  for 
"Childe  Roland,"  "Love  Among  the  Ruins,"  "Proteus,"  and  nearly  all 
the  poems  that  I  can  understand,  and  some  that  I  can  merely  guess 
at,  in  Browning.  I  do  not  feel  the  slightest  need  of  trying  to  apply  a 
common  measuring-rule  to  these  three  poets,  any  more  than  I  find  it 
necessary  to  compare  Keats  with  Shelley,  or  Shelley  with  Poe.  I  enjoy 
them  all. 

As  regards  Mr.  Eliot's  list,  I  think  it  slightly  absurd  to  compare  any 
list  of  good  books  with  any  other  list  of  good  books  in  the  sense  of  saying 
that  one  list  is  "better"  or  "worse"  than  another.  Of  course  a  list  may 
be  made  up  of  worthless  or  noxious  books;  but  there  are  so  many  thousands 
of  good  books  that  no  list  of  small  size  is  worth  considering  if  it  purports 
to  give  the  "best"  books.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  the  hundred  best 
books,  or  the  best  five-foot  library;  but  there  can  be  drawn  up  a  very 
large  number  of  lists,  each  of  which  shall  contain  a  hundred  good  books 
or  fill  a  good  five-foot  library.  This  is,  I  am  sure,  all  that  Mr.  Eliot  has 
tried  to  do.  His  is  in  most  respects  an  excellent  list,  but  it  is  of  course 
in  no  sense  a  list  of  the  best  books  for  all  people,  or  for  all  places  and 
times.  The  question  is  largely  one  of  the  personal  equation.  Some 
of  the  books  which  Mr.  Eliot  includes  I  would  not  put  in  a  five-foot 
library,  nor  yet  in  a  fifty-foot  library;  and  he  includes  various  good  books 
which  are  at  least  no  better  than  many  thousands  (I  speak  literally) 
which  he  leaves  out.  This  is  of  no  consequence  so  long  as  it  is  frankly  con- 
ceded that  any  such  list  must  represent  only  the  individual's  personal 
preferences,  that  it  is  merely  a  list  oi  good  books,  and  that  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  a  list  of  the  best  books.  It  would  be  useless  even  to 
attempt  to  make  a  list  with  such  pretensions  unless  the  library  were  to 
extend  to  many  thousand  volumes,  for  there  are  many  voluminous  writers, 
most  of  whose  writings  no  educated  man  ought  to  be  willing  to  spare. 
For  instance,  Mr.  Eliot  evidently  does  not  care  for  history;    at  least  he 


574  APPENDIX  P 

includes  no  historians  as  such.  Now,  personally,  I  would  not  include, 
as  Mr.  Eliot  does,  third  or  fourth  rate  plays,  such  as  those  of  Dryden, 
Shelley,  Browning,  and  Byron  (whose  greatness  as  poets  does  not  rest  on 
such  an  exceedingly  slender  foundation  as  these  dramas  supply),  and  at 
the  same  time  completely  omit  Gibbon  and  Thucydides,  or  even  Xeno- 
phon  and  Napier.  Macaulay  and  Scott  are  practically  omitted  from 
Mr.  Eliot's  list;  they  are  the  two  nineteenth-century  authors  that  1  should 
most  regret  to  lose.  Mr.  Eliot  includes  the  ^neid  and  leaves  out  the  Iliad; 
to  my  mind  this  is  like  including  Pope  and  leaving  out  Shakespeare.  In 
the  same  way,  Emerson's  "English  Traits"  is  included  and  Holmes's 
"Autocrat"  excluded— an  incomprehensible  choice  from  my  stand-point. 
So  with  the  poets  and  novelists.  It  is  a  mere  matter  of  personal  taste 
whether  one  prefers  giving  a  separate  volume  to  Burns  or  to  Wordsworth 
or  to  Browning;  it  certainly  represents  no  principle  of  selection.  "I 
Promessi  Sposi"  is  a  good  novel;  to  exclude  in  its  favor  "Vanity  Fair," 
"Anna  Karenina,"  "Les  Miserables,"  "The  Scarlet  Letter,"  or  hun- 
dreds of  other  novels,  is  entirely  excusable  as  a  mere  matter  of  personal 
taste,  but  not  otherwise.  Mr.  Eliot's  volumes  of  miscellaneous  essays, 
"Famous  Prefaces"  and  the  like,  are  undoubtedly  just  what  certain 
people  care  for,  and  therefore  what  they  ought  to  have,  as  there  is  no 
harm  in  such  collections;  though  personally  I  doubt  whether  there  is 
much  good,  either,  in  this  "tidbit"  style  of  literature. 

Let  me  repeat  that  Mr.  Eliot's  list  is  a  good  list,  and  that  my  protest 
is  merely  against  the  belief  that  it  is  possible  to  make  any  list  of  the  kind 
which  shall  be  more  than  a  list  as  good  as  many  scores  or  many  hundreds 
of  others.  Aside  from  personal  taste,  we  must  take  into  account  national 
tastes  and  the  general  change  in  taste  from  century  to  century.  There 
are  four  books  so  pre-eminent — the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  Homer,  and 
Dante — that  I  suppose  there  would  be  a  general  consensus  of  opinion 
among  the  cultivated  men  of  all  nationalities  in  putting  them  foremost;* 
but  as  soon  as  this  narrow  limit  was  passed  there  would  be  the  widest 
divergence  of  choice,  according  to  the  individuality  of  the  man  making 
the  choice,  to  the  country  in  which  he  dwelt,  and  the  century  in  which  he 
lived.  An  Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  a  German,  an  Italian,  would  draw 
up  totally  different  lists,  simply  because  each  must  necessarily  be  the 
child  of  his  own  nation. f 

*  Even  this  may  represent  too  much  optimism  on  my  part.  In  Ingres's  picture  on 
the  crowning  of  Homer,  the  foreground  is  occupied  by  the  figures  of  those  whom  the 
French  artist  conscientiously  beUeved  to  be  the  greatest  modern  men  of  letters.  They 
include  half  a  dozen  Frenchmen — only  one  of  whom  would  probably  have  been  included 
by  a  painter  of  some  other  nation — and  Shakespeare,  although  reluctantly  admitted,  is 
put  modestly  behind  another  figure,  and  only  a  part  of  his  face  is  permitted  to  peek 
through. 

f  The  same  would  be  true,  although  of  course  to  a  less  extent,  of  an  American,  an 
Englishman,  a  Scotchman,  and  an  Irishman,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  speak  sub- 
stantially the  same  language.  I  am  entirely  aware  that  if  I  made  an  anthology  of  poems, 
I  should  include  a  great  many  American  poems — like  Whittier's  "  Snow-Bound,"  "  Icha- 
bod,"  and  "  Laus  Deo";  like  Lowell's  "Commemoration  Ode"  and  "  Biglow  Papers" 


APPENDIX   F  57.5 

We  are  apt  to  speak  of  the  judgment  of  "  posterity  "  as  final ;  but  "  pos- 
terity" is  no  single  entity,  and  the  "posterity"  of  one  age  has  no  neces- 
sary sympathy  with  the  judgments  of  the  "posterity"  that  preceded  it  hy  a 
few  centuries.  Montaigne,  in  a  very  amusing  and,  on  the  whole,  sound 
essay  on  training  children,  mentions  with  pride  that  when  young  he  read 
Ovid  instead  of  wasting  his  time  on  "  'King  Arthur,'  'Lancelot  du  Lake,' 
.  .  .  and  such  idle  time-consuming  and  wit-besotting  trash  of  books, 
wherein  youth  doth  commonly  amuse  itself."  Of  course  the  trashy  books 
which  he  had  specially  in  mind  were  the  romances  which  Cervantes  not 
long  afterward  destroyed  at  a  stroke.  But  Malory's  book  and  others  were 
then  extant;  and  yet  Montaigne,  in  full  accord  with  the  educated  taste  of 
his  day,  saw  in  them  nothing  that  was  not  ridiculous.  His  choice  of  Ovid 
as  representing  a  culture  and  wisdom  immeasurably  greater  and  more 
serious  shows  how  much  the  judgment  of  the  "posterity"  of  the  sixteenth 
century  differed  from  that  of  the  nineteenth,  in  which  the  highest  literary 
thought  was  deeply  influenced  by  the  legends  of  Arthur's  knights  and 
hardly  at  all  by  anything  Ovid  wrote.  Dante  offers  an  even  more  strik- 
ing instance.  If  "posterity's"  judgment  could  ever  be  accepted  as  final, 
it  would  seem  to  be  when  delivered  by  a  man  like  Dante  in  speaking  of 
the  men  of  his  own  calling  who  had  been  dead  from  one  to  two  thousand 
years.  Well,  Dante  gives  a  list  of  the  six  greatest  poets.  One  of  them, 
he  modestly  mentions,  is  himself,  and  he  was  quite  right.  Then  come 
Virgil  and  Homer,  and  then  Horace,  Ovid,  and  Lucan!  Nowadays 
we  simply  could  not  understand  such  a  choice,  which  omits  the  mighty 
Greek  dramatists  (with  whom  in  the  same  canto  Dante  shows  his  ac- 
quaintance), and  includes  one  poet  whose  works  come  about  in  the  class 
of  the  "Columbiad." 

With  such  an  example  before  us,  let  us  be  modest  about  dogmatizing 
overmuch.  The  ingenuity  exercised  in  choosing  the  "Hundred  Best 
Books"  is  all  right  if  accepted  as  a  mere  amusement,  giving  something 
of  the  pleasure  derived  from  a  missing-word  puzzle.  But  it  does  not 
mean  much  more.  There  are  very  many  thousands  of  good  books;  some 
of  them  meet  one  man's  needs,  some  another's;  and  any  list  of  such  books 
should  simply  be  accepted  as  meeting  a.  given  individual's  needs  under 
given  conditions  of  time  and  surroundings. 

Khartoum,  March   15,   1910. 


— which  could  not  mean  to  an  Englisliman  what  they  mean  to  me.  In  the  same  way, 
such  an  English  anthology  as  the  "  Oxford  Book  of  English  Verse"  is  a  good  anthology 
— as  good  as  many  other  anthologies — as  long  as  it  confines  itself  to  the  verse  of  British 
authors.  But  it  would  have  been  far  better  to  exclude  American  authors  entirely;  for 
the  choice  of  the  American  verse  included  in  the  volume,  compared  in  quantity  and 
quality  with  the  corresponding  British  verse  of  the  same  period  which  is  selected,  makes 
it  impossible  to  treat  the  book  seriously,  if  it  is  regarded  as  a  compendium  of  the  authors 
of  both  countries. 


INDEX 


Aberdare  ranges,  277,  373. 

Abutilon,  a  flowering  shrub  on  which 
elephant  feed,  312. 

Africa,  British  East,  i;  EngHsh  rule  in, 
120,  121;  healthy  climate  of,  148;  fut- 
ure of,  173;  spring  in,  278;  preserva- 
tion of  elephant  in,  288;  missionary 
work  in,  432,  433. 

Africa,  East,  growth  and  development 
of,  42;  natives  of,  44. 

Africa,  German  East,  48. 

Akeley,  Carl,  67,  399,  400,  401,  403,  404. 

Akeley,  Mrs.,  399,  404. 

Ali,  the  tent  boy,  332,  390. 

Allen,  Mr.,  404. 

American  flag,  22,  95,  433. 

American  Mission  Stations,  119,  121; 
Industrial,  174,  426;  Mission  at  Sobat, 
visit  to,  527. 

Antelope,  57,  148,  330;    roan  antelope, 

383,  385,  507- 
Ants,  423,  448;    damage  done  by,  501; 

driver  ants,  501. 
Arabs,  332. 

Ardwolf  (a  miniature  hyena),  341. 
Askaris,  or  native  soldiers,  22,  98. 
Asser,  Colonel,  509. 
Athi  Plains,  52. 
Attenborough,  Messrs.,  248.   • 

Baboons,  261. 

Bahima  herdsmen,  439. 

Bahr  el  Ghazal,  525. 

Bahr  el  Zeraf,  526. 

Baker,  Sir  Samuel,  72. 

Bakhari,  a  gun-bearer,  330;  ostriches  de- 
scribed by,  332,  390. 

Banana  plantation,  311. 

Bateleur  eagle,  the,  441.. 

Bats,  360,  462. 

Beetles,  Goliath,  449. 

Belgian  Government,  courtesy  of,  458. 

Belgian  troops,  soldiers  of,  511. 

Birds,  41;  honey  bird,  125,  236;  extraor- 
dinary habit  of,  393,  397;  whydah 
finches,  155,  170,  189;  "lily  trotters," 


251;  wealth  of  bird  life,  251,  260,  264; 
water  birds,  269,  273,  344,  394,  441, 
448,  449,  460,  470;  wagtaiLs,  508,  529, 

S33- 
Bishops  in  Africa.   See  Hanlon,  Strcichcr, 

Tucker. 
Black  water  fever,  518. 
Boar,  244. 

Boers,   the,  47,   48,  50;   identity  of  in- 
terest between  Britons  and,   51,   131, 

405,  406. 
Bondoni,  46,  94. 
Bongo,  420,  422,  423. 
Borani  caravan,  a,  338. 
Botha,  Mr.,  405. 
Boyle,  Mr.,  429. 
Brandy,  moderate  use  of,  531. 
Brooks,  Mr.,  404. 
Browne,    Mr.,     district     commissioner, 

280. 
Buft'alo,    67,    150,    157,    ei    seq.,    290; 

bulls,  341 ;  disease  wiped  out  herds  of, 

342;  361;  496;  great  muscular  power 

of,  497- 
Bulpett,  Mr.,  124. 
Burroughs,  John,  393. 
Bushbuck,  27s,  330,  393,  396,  443,  483. 
Bustard,  228;  340;  483;  great  bustard, 

164;   234. 
Butiaba,  451. 
Butler  Bey,  509. 
Buxton,    Edward   North,   3;    books  on 

sport  of,  380. 
"Bwana,"  Swahili  tide  of,  119,  504. 

Cambridge  Museum,  404. 

Camp,  pitching,  98;  at  Kilimakiu,  102; 

fires  in,  467. 
Caravan,  a,  338. 

Carnegie,  Andrew.     Appendix  A. 
Champagne,  case  of,  518,  530. 
Chapman,  Abel,  73. 
Chapman,  Captain,  406. 
Cheetah,  90,  146,  340. 
Christians,  ^t,^. 
Christmas  Day,  march  on,  442. 


577 


578 


INDEX 


Clark,  323,  399,  404. 

Cobra,  235,  243. 

Cole,  Barclay,  422. 

Collier,  Robert,  399. 

Colobus  monkey,  419,  500. 

Coloration  of  animals,  effect  of  sunlight 

on,  220,  241,  335,  396,  appendix  E 
Congo,  the,  443. 
Corbett,    Mr.,     district     commissioner, 

406. 
Corbett,  Mrs.,  406. 
Cormorants,  508. 
Coryndon,  Major  R.  T.,  70. 
Cow-catcher,  ride  on  the,  16,  19. 
Cow-heron,  158,  437,  501. 
Crewe,  Lord.     Appendix  A. 
Crocodile,  341,  365,  482,  499. 
Cuckoos,  mice  eaten  by,  414. 
Cuninghame,  R.  J.,  3,  153,  167,  179,  186, 

214,  226,  262,  290,  293,  298,  302,  335, 

385,    425,    443,    489,    517^    520,   531, 
appendix  A. 

Dance,  funeral,  423. 

Dance,  Kikuyu,  280. 

Dancing-rings,  156. 

Delamere,  Lord,  415. 

Dikdik,  53,  242. 

Dogs,  148,  168. 

Donors  of  double  elephant  rifle,  list  of, 

28. 
Donyo  Sabuk,  126. 
Dorobo,  a,  293;   elephant's  death  causes 

hysterics  of,  299. 
Drummond,  74. 

Dugmore,  A.  R.     Appendix  E. 
Duiker,  53,  277,  414,  491. 
Dust  devils,  491. 
Dysentery,  deaths  from,  502-510. 

Egrets,  white,  467. 

Egyptian  geese,  269. 

Eland,  103,  191,  327;  Patterson's  eland, 
328,  33°,  344;  345 ;  gait  of,  345;  fun 
with  a  herd  of,  372,  396;  giant  eland, 

510,  513.  514,  515- 
Elephant,  67,  282,  ei  seq.,  295;  wonder- 
ful  climbing  powers  of,  296;    death 
of    first,    299,    312;    bad    sight    of, 

398-404,    443,    447,    463,    473.    475; 
large  herd  of,   500;    men  killed   by, 

503- 


Elukania,  59. 
Entebbe,  426. 
Equipment,  29. 
Euphorbias,  40,  217,  446. 

Fires,  467. 

Fish  eagles,  501. 

Flamingoes,  375. 

Flies,  game  annoyed  by,  358;    tsetse  fly, 

415,  470;  sleeping-sickness  fly,  470. 
Flowers,  40,  277,  278,  389,  437. 
Fox,  African,  275. 
Francolins,  398. 
Freakishness  of  wild  beasts,  344. 

Game,  reserve,  14;  laws,  14;  butchery  of, 
15;  comparative  danger  in  hunting 
different  kinds  of,  67,  72;  stamping 
grounds  of,  222;  varying  habits  of, 
237;  et  seq.;  books  on  East  African, 
381;  need  of  an  adequate  term  to 
distinguish  the  sexes  of  African,  393; 
scent  of,  445;  in  middle  Africa,  pres- 
ervation of,  463;    shot  during  trip,  list 

of,  532- 

Garstin,  Sir  William,  527. 

Gazelles,  32;  Grant's  gazelles,  32,  53, 
60;  northern  form  of,  349;  Roberts' 
gazelles,  208;  Thomson's  gazelles,  34, 
53,  61,  208. 

Genet  kittens,  354. 

Gerenuk,  341,  350,  360. 

Giraffe,  interruption  of  telegraph  ser- 
vice by,  18,  54;  characteristics  of, 
112,  etc.,  205;  peculiar  gait  of,  345; 
"reticulated"  form  of,  354;  indiffer- 
ence to  water  of,  361 ;  interesting  ex- 
perience with  a,  s^y,   388 ;  note  osi,  389. 

Girouard,  Sir  Percy,  426. 

Goanese,  10,  273. 

Goldfinch,  Mr.,  encounter  with  a  lion,  y6. 

Gondokoro,  504;  march  to,  506,  Si7- 

Gouvimali,  the  gun-bearer,  190,  330,  370, 
390,  497- 

Government  farm,  269. 

Government  House,  273. 

Grey,  Sir  Edward.     Appendix  A. 

Grogan,  Quentin,  458,  480,  481,  485, 486, 
489,  491,  496. 

Guaso  Nyero,  184,  186,  326,  359,  390. 

Guerza,  177. 

Guinea-fowls,  360. 


INDEX 


579 


Gun-bearers,  124;  rejoicings  of  the,  307; 
amusing  English  of  the,  332;  charac- 
teristics of  the,  390. 

Haddon,    Mr.,     district     commissioner, 

518. 
Hamburg,  4. 

Hanlon,  Bishop,  433,  435. 
Hartebeest,  32;  "kongoni,"SwahiH  name 

of,  53;  Coke's,  59,  152,  153,  192;  Ncu- 

man's,  374;   Jackson's,  390;  398;  442; 

Nile,  483. 
Hay,  John,  194. 
Heat,  507,  513. 
Heatley,  Hugh  H.,  48,  14S,  149,  150,  162, 

172,  272. 
Heller,  Edmund  A.,  3,  88,  109,  118,  164, 

186,  226,  260,  277,  311,  318,  335,  389, 

467,  481,  489,  517- 
Hill,  Clifford,  26,  46,  78. 
Hill,  Harold,  26,  46,  78,  79,  89,  90,  92. 
Hinde,  Major,  11. 
Hinterland,  i. 
Hippo,  142,  144,  252,  etc.,  262,  etc.,  290; 

porters  chased  by  a,  400,  463,  474. 
Hobley,   Mr.,  provincial  commissioner, 

379- 

Hog,  the  giant,  420,  422. 

Hoima,  449. 

Honey  bird,  first  sight  of,  125;  character- 
istic experience  with  a,  236;  extraor- 
dinary habit  of,  393,  397. 

Hornaday,  W.  T.,  476. 

Hornbills,  325. 

Home,  Mr.,  301,  302,  337,  342. 

Horses,  the,  333,  415. 

Humphery,  Mr.,  district  commissioner, 
52,  76.  _ 

Hunt,  Leigh,  509,  appendix  A. 

Hurlburt,  Mr.,  174. 

Hutchinson,  Captain,  R.N.R.,  451. 

Hyena,  68-72;  197,  221;  difficulty  in 
determining  sex  of,  387,  390,  403, 
417. 

Hyraxes,  370,  420. 

Ibis  stork,  269. 

Impalla,  53,  127,  128,  129,  130,  375. 
Indian  trader,  letter  from  an,  323. 
Ingowa,  an,  a  war-dance  of  the  natives, 

323- 
Ivory,  287,  317;   poachers  of,  457,. 


Jackal,  340. 

Jackson,    Lieutenant-Governor,    8,    72, 

173,  323- 
Jordaan,  Mr.,  406,  407. 
Judd,  H.,  48,  126,  271. 
Juja  Farm,  119,  123,  146. 
Juma  Yohari,  Kcrmit's  gun-bearer,  390, 

425,  505- 
Jungle,  the,  302,  303. 
Jusserand,  M.,  French  ambassador,  194. 

Kafu  River,  449. 

Kamiti  Ranch,  149. 

Kamiti  River,  149,  150. 

Kampalla,  429. 

Kangani,  351. 

Kapiti  Plains,  20,  52. 

Kassitura,  Kermit's  gun-bcarcr,  390,  466, 

505,  517- 

Kavirondo  crane,  155,  274,  335,  348. 

Kearton,  Mr.,  323. 

Kenia,  Mount,  281,  326;  biological  sur- 
vey of,  376,  378,  appendix  D. 

Khartoum,   parting  from   comrades  at, 

53°- 
Kijabe,  174,  176,  274,  426. 
Kikuyu   savages,    123,    124,    258,    274; 

dance  of,  280,  281,  301,  324,  331. 
Kilimakiu,  47,  102. 
Kilimanjaro,  38. 
Kilindini,  423. 
King's  African  Rifles,  the,  encamped  at 

Neri,  323. 
Kirke,  Mr.,  406,  407,  410. 
Kisumu,  426. 
Kitanga,  hills  of,  37,  38. 
Klipspringers,  65,  223. 
Klopper,  Mr.,  47,  49. 
Knowles,  Mr.,  district  commissioner,  429; 

struck  by  lightning,  437. 
Kob,   Uganda,  395,  483,    523;    lechwe, 

520,    521,    523,   526;   Vaughn's,   523; 

white-eared,  520,  526,  527. 
Koba,  457.  ^ 
Koda,  the  river,  510. 
Kolb,  Dr.,  417. 
Kongoni,  a  Wakamba  gun-bearer,  390, 

400,  443,  444,  466,  497. 
Koodoo,  374,  375- 

Lado  country,  the,  451,  458,  481,  518. 
Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  438,  451. 


580 


INDEX 


Lake  Hannington,  347,  375. 

Lake  Ingouga,  317. 

Lake  Naivasha,  237,  248,  274. 

Lake  No,  520. 

Lake  Sergoi,  404,  405. 

Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  426. 

Lantana  brush,  a  favorite  cover  for 
elephants,  308. 

Leopard,  54,  55,  67,  131-134,  261,  262; 
man-eating,  344;  396,  417;  trap  carried 
off  by  a,  473,  518. 

Lioness,  74,  92,  199,  200,  223,  226. 

Lions,  67,  74,  et  seq.;  death  of  first, 
85,  87,  194,  228-232,  271;  cow  ele- 
phants charge,  322;  party  of  eleven, 
338,  et  seq.,  367,  408;  stabbed  to  death 
by  spears,  409,  410;  supposed  monog- 
amy of,  413. 

Lizards,  blue-green,  372;  monitor,  460, 
482,  483;  crocodile's  nest  plundered 
by,  498. 

Loijs,  Mr.,  47,  49. 

Londiani,  382,  414. 

London,  Mr.,  376. 

Loring,  J.  Alden,  3,  164,  186,  245,  274, 
468,  474,  476;  variety  of  photos  taken 
by,  476,  508,  518,  appendices  C,  D. 

Machakos-boma,  27,  119. 

Magi,  asais,  392,  504,  517. 

Mahdism,  519. 

Mali,  Kermit's  tent  boy,  391. 

Mammals,   large,   list  of,   appendix  B; 

small,    42,     188,    189,    245;    list    of, 

appendix  B. 
Man-eater,  adventure  with  a,  12. 
Marabou  stork,  329,  501. 
Masai,  42,  124,  192;  kraal  of  the,  201, 

202,  225;    lions  attack  on,  245,  246; 

guides,  247,  274;    dance  of  the,  280; 

villages  of,  325. 
Massart,  M.,  510. 
Mau  escarpment,  422. 
McCutcheon,   John  T.,   the  cartoonist, 

399,  404. 
McMillans,  52,  123,  271,  273. 
Mearns,  Surgeon-Lt.  Col.  Edgar  A.,  3, 

164,  186,  245,  274,  394,  468,  498,  518, 

522,  appendix  D. 
Medlicott,  81,  85. 
Meru  boma,  301,  308,  337,  343. 
Meru,  wild  hunters,  311. 


Mice,  varieties  of,  188,  260,  277;  tree- 
mouse,  359,  448,  470. 

Middleton,  Captain,  509. 

Millais,  John  G.,  "A  Breath  from  the 
Veldt."     Appendix  E. 

Milne,  Dr.,  379. 

Missions:  American,  119,  121;  French 
Catholic,  174;  American  Industrial, 
174;  Kijabe,  274;  Kampalla,  head- 
quarters of  the,  429;  Church  of  Eng- 
land, 433;  Catholic,  433;  Medical, 
434;  Mission  of  the  White  Fathers, 
435;   Sobat,  527. 

Mohammedanism,  18.     . 

Mombasa,  2,  7. 

Mombasa  Club,  dinner  at,  8. 

Mongalla,  518. 

Mongoose,  interesting  anecdote  of  a, 
345,  420. 

Monkey,  Colobus,  419,  500. 

Monkeys,  295;  swim  across  a  river,  367, 
441,  500,  507. 

Moose,  anecdote  of  a,  346. 

Mosquitoes,  440,  459,  494. 

Mother  Paul,  434,  435. 

Mouton,  Mr.,  406,  407,  408. 

Mua  Hills,  52. 

Mules,  470,  510. 

Music,  instruments  of,  447. 

Nairobi,  70,  173,  174,  271;  race  week 
at,  273;  plague  of  wild  beasts  in,  379, 
425;    good-by  to  friends  at,  426. 

Nairobi  Falls,  150. 

Nairobi  River,  123,  150. 

Naivasha,  Lake.     See  Lake. 

Nakuru,  376,  426. 

Nandi,  the,  406,  407,  410;  lion  killed 
by  spears  of,  409;   rejoicings  of,  410. 

Naples,  arrival  at,  5. 

Naturalists,  work  of  the  modern,  21; 
pre-eminence  of  the,  190;  need  of  am- 
ple observation  by  trustworthy  field, 
340;  troubles  of  hunting  as  a,  357; 
diificult  profession  of,  479. 

'Ndorobo,  primitive  lives  of  the,  246; 
Masai  'Ndorobo,  292-294,  297;  ac- 
cident to  the,  300;  characteristics  of 
the,  418-423. 

Neri,  277,  281,  323. 

Neuman,  Arthur,  364. 

Newland,  Mr.,  410,  appendix  A. 


INDEX 


581 


Nile,  the,  502,  518,  519,  528,  529. 

Nimule,  441,  502,  504,  506. 

Njoro,  415. 

Nuer,  a,  524. 

Nyanza  lakes.     See  Lake. 

Nyika  village,  a,  423. 

'Nzoi  River,  382,  392. 

Oribi,  386,  390,  392,  414,  462. 
Oryx,297, 326, 328, 329, 334, 341, 350, 352. 
Ostrich,  352-354. 
Ostrich-farming,  154. 
Otters,  257. 
Owego  Gazette,  269. 
Owen,  Colonel,  509,  518. 
Ox  wagons,  178,  179,  405. 

Pagans,  18. 

Palms,  308;  ivory-nut,  359. 

Papyrus  swamps,  149,  150,  250,  499. 

Patterson,  Colonel  J.  H.,  author  of  "The 

Man-eaters  of  Tsavo,"  12. 
"Pax  Europaica,"  results  of  the,  338. 
Peary,  news  of  finding  of  the  Pole  by, 

346;    cable  from,  346. 
Pease,  Sir  Alfred,  26,  52,  71-74,  85,  122. 
Pease,  Miss,  85. 
Pelican,  269. 

Pennant,  Captain  Douglas,  379. 
Percival,  46,  78,  81. 
Piggott,  L.,  Mr.,  district  commissioner, 

344- 

Pigskin  Library,  23,  193;  additions  to, 
425;   appendix  F. 

Pleistocene,  2. 

Poe,  quotation  from,  454. 

Police,  New  York,  434;  note  on,  434. 

Porcupines,  261. 

Porters,  songs  of  the,  93,  505;  character- 
istics of,  costumes  of,  94-98;  feasts 
of,  no;  502;  white  men  christened 
by,  119,  169;  game  hallalled  for,  228; 
short-sightedness  of,  247,  250,  ^^y, 
rhino  tosses  a,  362,  384,  390;  good-by 
to  the,  414;  work  of  Uganda,  438; 
tags  to  designate,  485 ;  faithfulness  of 
the,  505;  presents  for,  505,  517. 

"Posho,"  food  for  the  porters,  323. 

Potha,  88. 

Prinsloo,  Mr.,  47,  $i. 

"Protective  coloration," 54-56,  396,  419, 
appendix  E. 


PufI  adder,  224,  235,  345,  448. 
Python,  130,  188. 

Quin,  443. 

Race  week,  273. 

"Railway  Journey,  Most  Interesting,  in 

the  World,"  13 
Ranquet,  M.,  509. 
Ratel,  or  honey  badger,  383. 
Rats,  different  species  of,  260,  277,  448. 
Redjaf,  510. 
Reedbuck,  mountain,  53,  65;  bohor,  386; 

393.  396,  414,  442. 

Renkin,  M.     Appendix  A. 

Rewero  Falls,  152. 

Rewero  River,  123,  150. 

Rhinoceros,  67,  104-110;  etc.,  137-142; 
habits  of  different  species  of,  206,  212, 
216;  "Keitloa"  type  of  horn  of,  233; 
comparison  with  elephant  of,  284, 
290;  finest  specimen  of,  308,  319;  por 
ter  tossed  and  gored  by  a,  362;  the 
square-mouthed  or  white,  464-467; 
471;  difference  in  size  of,  471,  475- 
482;  pictures  of,  485;  horn  measure- 
ment of,  486;  unusual  position  of,  493, 

497- 

Rifles,  28;  donors  of  the  elephant  rifle, 
28-30;  100;  first  trial  of  the  Holland, 
106;  work  dene  by  the  different,  118; 
comparisorx  of,  138,  141,  190,  197,  200, 
204,  213,  233,234,  269,  307,  322,  515. 

Rift  Valley,  500. 

Rohr,  the,  529. 

Roosevelt,  Kermit,  3,  28,  116;  red-letter 
day  of,  194,  208,  215,  232,  244,  273, 
275;  successful  photos  of  wild  elephant 
taken  by,  308,  338,  unequalled  record 
in  killing  cheetahs  of,  340,  374;  twen- 
tieth birthday  of,  375,  388,  393,  400, 
422;  hunt  for  sable  of,  423;  et  seq.,  445, 
466;  good  rhino  pictures  taken  by, 
485;  health  of,  502,  530;  devotion  of 
followers  to,  504;  in  seeing  and  chasing 
game,  skill  of,  232,  514. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  sails  from  New 
York,  3;  arrival  at  Mombasa  of,  7; 
starts  on  a  hunt  alone,  301;  fifty-first 
birthday  of,  382;  health  throughout 
trip  of,^  530. 

Rumeruti,  374. 


582 


INDEX 


Sable,  the,  423-425. 

"Safari,"  20,  94,  186;  peace-offering  to 
the  "safari  ants,"  325;  attraction  for 
natives  of  work  of,  384;  good  by  to 
the,  414;  conduct  of  the,  414;  "wood 
safari,"  505. 

Sahara,  430. 

Saises,  or  horse  boys,  22,  TiTiT,. 

Salt  marsh,  a,  242. 

Samburu,  the,  cattle-owning  nomads,  364. 

Sanderson,  Captain,  town  clerk,  379. 

Sandiford,  Mr.,  70. 

Scale  for  weighing  game,  30,  366. 

Schilling,  Carl  G.,  "Flashlight  and 
Rifle."     Appendix  E. 

Scientific  expedition,  difficulty  of  trans- 
porting supplies  on  a,  347. 

Scotch  settlers,  engaged  to  take  charge  of 
the  safari,  323. 

Selous,  Frederick  Courteney,  3,  5,  52,  72, 
218,  271. 

Serval  cat,  340,  518. 

"Shambas,"  282. 

"Shenzis,"  wild  natives,  312,  330,  438; 
gifts  to  the,  517. 

Situtunga,  437. 

Skally,  Mr.,  406,  407. 

Skins,  difficulty  in  preparing,  164,  173, 
510. 

Slatin  Pasha,  509. 

Slatter,  Captain  Arthur,  47,  48,  112,  114. 

Sleeping  sickness,  ravages  of,  48,  68,  428; 
preventive  of,  428;  sleeping-sickness 
fly,  bite  of,  470. 

Smith  hopelessly  crippled  by  a  lion,  156. 

Smith,  Captain,  186. 

Smith,  William  Lord,  404. 

Smithsonian,  3. 

Snakes,  235,  291;  man  bitten  by  a, 
385,  448. 

Soldiers,  Sikh,  436;  Egyptian  and  Sou- 
danese, 518. 

Solve,  _M.,  525. 

Somalis,  124,  273. 

Songs,  native:  victory  song,  88,  93,  260; 
on  death  of  elephant,  307;  Kikuyu 
savages'  songs,  324,  410,  505. 

Sotik,  174,  237. 

Soudan,  success  of  English  rule  in  the, 

519- 
Southern  Cross,  38. 
Spearmen,  Nandi,  409. 


Spirillum  tick,  440. 

Springhaas,  260,  269;  "shining"  spring- 
haas  by  night,  274. 

"Star-spangled  Banner,  The,"  433,  435. 

Stations,  condition  of  railroad,  18. 

Steinbuck,  53,  234,  326;  conspicuous  coat 
of  the,  335,  414. 

Stevenson,  399,  404. 

Stigand,  72. 

Stork,  saddle-billed,  or  jabiru,  276. 

Stork,  the  whale-billed,  522,  525. 

Storms,  majesty  of  the,  331;  thunder- 
storms, 437. 

Straus,  Oscar.     Appendix  A. 

Streicher,  Bishop,  435. 

Suavi  River,  184. 

Sud,  the,  520. 

Supplies,  naturalists',  20. 

Sururu,  kraal  of  Chief,  489,  490;  camp 
outside  village  of,  494,  496. 

Swahili,  the  coast  men,  23,  274,  384. 

Swahili  (a  kind  of  African  chinook),  312, 
332- 

Tana,  281. 

Tarlton,  Leslie,  3,  26,  186,  197,  199,  226, 
231,  290,  302,  308,  338,  341,  374, 
385,  388,  392,  395,  e^  ^^1;  425, 
appendix  A. 

"Teddy  bears,"  420. 

Tent  boys,  332,  390-392. 

Terriers,  wart-hog  killed  by,  262. 

Thayer,  Gerald  H.,  book  on  "Conceal- 
ing Coloration."     Appendix  E. 

"Thirst,  The,"  178,  179. 

Thro  wing-sticks,  65. 

Ticks,  37,  129. 

Topi,  188,  192,  193,  208,  214. 

Trails,  Africa  a  country  of,  loi,  102. 

TranquiUity,  the  horse,  26,  115,  388. 

"Transport  riding,"  178. 

Traps,  beasts  caught  in,  260,  261. 

Trees,  278,  295;  many  kinds  of  strange, 
337,  348;  "sausage-tree,"  398;  baobab- 
tree,  423,  436,  446. 

Tsetse  fly,  415,  470. 

Tucker,  Bishop,  433,  434- 

Uasin  Gishu,  382,  390. 

Uganda,  68,  425 ;  explorers  of,  people  of, 

429;  government  of,  431,  432;  houses 

in,  436. 


INDEX 


58S 


Uganda,  King  of,  430;  visit  to,  435. 

Uganda  Railway,  16. 

Ulyate,  178. 

University  of  California,  elephant  skin 

presented  to,  307. 
Unyoro,  449;  King  of,  449. 

Vegetation,  character  of  the,  336. 

Wadelai,  457;  natives  of,  457. 
Wakamba,  42,  44,  88,  103;  trained  to 

act  as  skinners,  109,  118,  274. 
Wa-Meru,  the,  a  wild  martial  tribe,  301, 

3">  337- 
Ward,  Mr.  F.  A.,  379. 
Wart-hog,  99,  152,  199. 
Waterbuck,  126;  singsing,  261,  275,  360, 

369,  395,  397,  473,  490. 
Waterspout,  a,  326. 


Whale-billed  stork,  the,  522,  525. 

White,  Mr.  John  Jay,  466. 

White  Nile,  the,  454. 

Whydah  finches,  155,  170;  new  kinds  of 

whydah  birds,  318. 
Wildebeest,  32,  34,  36,  53,  192;  shyness 

of,  210,  215. 
Williams,  245,  271. 
Wingate,   Major-General   Sir   Reginald, 

509- 

Zebra,  Burchell's,  351,  358. 

Zebra,  Grevy's,  341;  called  by  the  por- 
ters "kangani,"  351;  weight  of  a, 
366. 

Zebras,  protection  of,  16,  58-60,  152; 
savagery  of,  273,  369;  put  in  the  pound 
at  Nairobi,  380. 

Zoological  garden,  19. 


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